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EASY  MONEY 


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Being  the 
Experiences  of  a   Reformed  Gambler 


All  Gambling  Tricks  Exposed 


\  BY 

HARRY  BROLASKI 


Cleveland,   O. 

SEARCHLIGHT    PRESS 

1911 


Copyrighted,  1911 

by 

Hany  Brolaski 


-W..  ,  ,-;.  j  jfc. 


HV 
^  115^ 

CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  I.                                  Pages 
Introductory    : 9-10 

CHAPTE-R  II. 
My*  First   Bet 11-25 

CHAPTER   III. 
The  Gambling  Germ  Grows — A  Mother's  Love 26-5S 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Grafter  and  Gambler — Varied  Experiences 59-85 

CHAPTER  V. 
A  Race  Track  and  Its  Operation 86-91 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Race-track  Grafts  and  Profits — Bookmakers 92-104 

CHAPTER   VII. 
Oral   Betting 106-108 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Pool-rooms     109-118 

CHAPTER   IX. 
Hand-books    119-121 

CHAPTER  X. 
Gambling  Germ 122-123 

CHAPTER   XI. 
Malevolence  of  Racing 124-125 

CHAPTER  XII. 
Gambling   by    Employees 126-127 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
My  First  Race  Horse 128-130 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
Some     Race-track     Experiences — Tricks     of     the 

Game    131-152 

CHAPTER  XV. 
Race-track   Tricks— Getting  the   Money 153-162 

7 


8  Contents. 

CHAPTER  XVI.  Pages 

Women   Bettors 163-165 

CHAPTER  XVII. 
Public    Choice 166 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 
Jockeys    167-174 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
Celebrities  of  the  Race   Track 175-203 

CHAPTER  XX. 
The  Fight  Against  Race  Tracks. 204-219 

CHAPTER  XXI 
Plague  Spots  in  American  Cities 220-234 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
Gambling  Inclination  of  Nations 235-237 

CHAPTE-R  XXIII. 
Selling    Tips 238-240 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 
Statement  Before  United  States  Senate  Judiciary- 
Committee — Race-track    Facts    and    Figures — 
International  Reform  Bureau 241-249 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
Gambling  on  the  Mississippi  River 250-255 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
Gambling  Games  and  Devices 256-280 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
Monte   Carlo   and   Roulette 281-287 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception 288-313 

CHAPTER  XXIX. 
Some   Gambling   Stories 314-320 

CHAPTER  XXX. 
Gambling .321-325 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 
An    Effective    Prohibition.... 326 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 
Conclusion   327-328 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

I  shall  endeavor  in  these  writings  concerning 
gambling  and  gamblers  to  follow  the  injunction 
which  the  Spartan  father  gave  to  his  son — to  "shoot 
straight  and  speak  the  truth." 

I  am  now  forty  years  of  age.  During  twenty- 
one  of  those  years  I  have  been  connected  with  gam- 
blers ;  at  first  as  their  victim,  and  afterwards -as  their 
confederate.  Bret  Harte  doped  our  literature  with 
Mother  Shipton  and  John  Oakhurst,  but  his  deified 
sport  is  as  much  the  offspring  of  pure  fiction  as  his 
sanctified  strumpet.  I  assert,  without  fear  of  suc- 
cessful contradiction  from  those  who  know,  that 
not  one  professional  gambler  in  a  thousand  is  at  all 
times  absolutely  square.  He  will  occasionally,  if 
not  always,  throw  loaded  dice,  deal  from  the  bottom 
of  the  pack,  introduce  marked  cards,  extract  aces 
from  his  sleeve,  pull  cards  from  a  faro  box  with  a 
"snake"  in  it,  whirl  the  ball  around  an  advantage 
wheel,  and  control  the  outcome  of  a  race  by  doping 
horses  and  bribing  jockeys. 

I  have  been,  as  a  professional  gambler,  not  as 
bad  as  the  worst  of  them,  but  probably  as  good  as 
the  best  of  them.  Like  the  farmer  who  does  not  al- 
ways put  the  smallest  strawberries  at  the  bottom  of 
the  box,  and  the  biggest  adjacent  rock  in  the  middle 


10  Easy  Money. 

of  the  hay  bale ;  or,  like  the  Wall  Street  broker  who 
does  not  always  bucket  the  orders  of  his  customers, 
I  have  often  been  square  with  those  who  dealt  fairly 
with  me.  At  other  times  I  have  been  a  follower  of 
the  golden  rule  of  David  Harum  to  "do  unto  others 
what  they  would  do  unto  me  if  they  had  a  chance, 
and  to  do  it  first." 

I  have  left  the  race  track  and  the  card  room 
forever.  I  have  revolted  from  the  associations  and 
practices  of  twenty-one  years.  I  am  writing  these 
sketches  partly  from  the  selfish  motive  of  so  shut- 
ting the  doors  of  gambling  rooms  and  pool-rooms 
in  my  own  face  as  to  make  my  return  to  them  im- 
possible, and  partly  from  the  unselfish  motive  of 
warning  others  away  from  the  pitfalls  into  which  I 
was  beguiled  in  youth,  and  into  which  I  afterwards 
aided  to  beguile  others.  Whether  my  reformation 
from  gambling  to  decency  is  due  to  the  teachings  of 
Christianity,  or  to  the  influence  of  Halley's  Comet, 
is  a  matter  of  no  consequence  to  the  reader.  What- 
ever the  cause,  or  whatever  the  consequences,  I  am 
going  to  tell  the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing 
but  the  truth. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MY  FIRST  BET.   , 

Until  I  reached  the  age  of  eighteen  years,  I  was 
an  honest,  hard-working  lad,  living  with  my  parents 
in  St.  Louis,  and  acting  as  assistant  clerk  on  a  Mis- 
sissippi River  steamer,  of  which  my  father  was 
captain  and  part  owner.  It  was  in  1888,  and  gam- 
bling on  river  boats  was  no  longer  practiced,  or  even 
tolerated,  as  in  the  years  before  the  war.  The  pre- 
historic southern  "Majah,"  with  broad  brimmed 
sombrero,  white  necktie,  gold-headed  cane  and 
courtly  demeanor,  the  "Majah"  who  put  up  a  fifty- 
dollar  bale  of  cotton  for  his  "ante,"  and  raised  his 
opponent  a  one-thousand-dollar  "nigger"  after  the 
draw,  had  vanished  from  the  Mississippi  River 
steamers,  and  was  now  in  evidence  only  in  the  pool- 
rooms and  at  the  race  tracks,  where  jockeyed, 
weighted,  trimmed  and  doped  horses  had  taken  the 
place  of  marked  cards.  The  excursion  steamer  was 
to  take  the  place  of  the  old-time  gambling  on  the 
Mississippi,  in  which  business  I  became  engaged  in 
later  years,  as  related  within  these  pages. 

One  bright  moonlight  evening  in  1888,  as  I  was 

enjoying  my  eighteenth  year  of  life  by  pacing  up 

and  down  the  hurricane  deck  of  my  father's  steamer, 

the  Annie  P.  Silver,  as  she  lay  at  th§  foot  of  Olive 

Street,  St.  Louis,  two  gentlemen — that  is,  they  were 

11 


12  Easy  Money. 

gentlemen  in  dress  and  manners — came  on  board 
and  accosted  me.  "Mr.  Brolaski,  I  presume,"  said 
the  elder  of  the  two.  1  admitted  that  such  was  my 
name. 

"My  name'  is  Morris.  You  have  forgotten  me," 
said  he,  "but  I  had  the  pleasure  of  an  introduction 
to  you  last  week  during  the  excursion  trip  of  this 
boat  up  the  river,  and  your  name  has  since  been 
mentioned  to  me  by  mutual  friends  as  that  of  a 
young  man  in  whose  discretion  and  secrecy  I  could 
confide." 

I  admitted  that  I  was  discreet,  and  not  given 
to  babbling. 

"Mr.  Brolaski,"  said  he,  "I  am  betting  commis- 
sioner for  one  of  the  largest  stables  at  the  race  track, 
and  I  am  necessarily  in  a  position  to  make  some 
money  out  of  advance  information,  but  I  cannot  act 
openly  or  I  would  lose  my  position.  This  man  that 
I  have  brought  with  me  is  the  trainer  of  one  of  the 
horses  to  be  in  a  race  tomorrow,  and  it  has  been 
'fixed'  for  that  horse  to  win.  He  cannot  bet  openly 
on  that  horse,  neither  can  I.  We  want  somebody 
to  place  bets  and  we  desire,  if  possible,  to  make  an 
arrangement  with  you  to  do  so  for  us  You  can 
profit  by  the  knowledge  we  give  you  to  make  bets 
with  an  absolute  certainty  of  winning.  In  return 
for  this  information  we  will  require  you  to  share 
your  winnings  with  us.  It  is  a  sure  thing.  The  odds 
will  be  ten  to  one  against  the  horse  that  is  'fixed' 
to  win,  and  you  can  take  down  one  thousand  dol- 


14  Easy  Money. 

lars — which  will  be  five  hundred  for  you — for  every 
one  hundred  dollars  you  put  up.  I  suppose  you 
have  a  hundred  dollars  that  you  can  command?" 

I  had  two  hundred  and  fifteen  dollars,  that  it 
had  taken  me  all  summer  to  earn  by  working  about 
eighteen  hours  a  day.  The  jew-fish  within  me 
opened  wide  its  mouth  to  swallow  the  offered  bait, 
and  I  advised  Mr.  Morris  of  the  condition  of  my 
finances. 

"Well,"  said  Mr.  Morris,  "bring  this  money  with 
you  to  the  race  track  tomorrow.  Don't  say  a  word 
to  any  living  soul.  This  horse  trainer  has  been 
robbed  of  his  earnings  for  the  season  by  a  stable 
hand  who  ran  away  with  the  money,  and  I  am  doing 
this  to  help  the  man  and  his  little  family.  I  want 
but  little  for  myself.  You  will  have  half  of  what 
you  win,  the  other  half  goes  to  us.  If  this  is  satis- 
factory, Mr.  Brolaski,  I  will  see  you  at  the  race 
track  tomorrow.  Don't  address  me  there  until  I 
first  speak  to  you,  for  we  will  have  to  be  cautious." 

The  gentlemen  departed,  leaving  me  to  a  sleep- 
less night  of  anticipation.  Well  has  Doctor  Johnson 
said  that  "hope  is  sweeter  than  possession."  How 
much  better  is  the  money  that  we  are  going  to  get 
than  the  money  we  do  get.  Oh,  the  things  we  can 
do  with  it,  the  luxuries  we  will  buy  with  it,  the 
friends  we  will  help  with  it,  the  European  tours  we 
will  take  with  it ! 

"What,"  I  said  to  myself,  "is  the  use  of  working, 
when  there  are  fabulous  sums  of  easy  money  wait- 


My  First  Bet.  15 

ing  to  be  picked  up  at  the  race  track?"  I  had  slaved 
all  summer  to  make  and  save  a  poor  two  hundred 
and  fifteen  dollars,  and  now  I  would  double  or  quad- 
ruple it  in  one  afternoon.  I  would  in  a  short  time 
become  a  king  of  finance.  I  would  strut  through  the 
corridors  of  the  Southern  Hotel  with  a  diamond  pin 
like  the  head  light  of  a  locomotive.  I  would  make 
all  my  acquaintances  kow-tow  to  the  Young  Napo- 
leon of  Finance.    It  would  be — 

"I,  I,  I  itself,  I— 

The  inside,  the  outside,  the  what  and  the  why  ; 

The  when  and  the  where,  the  low  and  the  high — 

All  I,  I,  I  itself,  I." 
But  how,  thought  I,  about  the  right  and  wrong  of 
it?  Would  it  be  honest  to  obtain  money  in  this 
way?  But  I  quieted  my  conscience  with  the  stock 
reflection  that  the  devil  puts  in  the  brain  of  thieves 
that  "somebody  would  get  it  in  this  way,  and  I 
might  as  well  be  that  somebody." 

The  morning  dawned.  I  was  up  at  five  o'clock 
and  all  in  a  flutter.  I  strutted  around  my  room  like 
a  peacock  on  an  amatory  excursion.  I  could  not 
attend  to  my  business  at  all  during  the  morning. 
Aly  mind  was  constantly  on  the  race  track.  I  did 
not  partake  of  any  breakfast  except  a  cup  of  cofifee. 
and  my  noon  luncheon  consisted  of  a  chocolate 
eclair  and  another  cup  of  cofifee.  My  watch  could 
not  run  fast  enough  for  me.    I  said  with  the  poet — 

"Oh  how  the  leaden-footed,  limpid  minutes 

Do  lag  and  creep  beneath  my  fiery  wish." 


16  Easy  Money. 

I  thought  that  two  o'clock  would  never  come.  At 
about  half  past  twelve  o'clock  I  went  to  the  Fair 
Grounds  race  track  to  see  a  horse  race  for  the  first 
time.  I  purchased  my  ticket  and  bought  a  program. 
The  boys  on  the  outside  selling  tips  and  stable  in- 
formation saw  that  I  was  a  new  one  and  a  green  one. 
They  clustered  around  and  tried  to  sell  me  their  tips 
and  stable  information.  I  waved  them  aside  with  a 
haughty  air,  trying  to  make  them  think  I  was  an  old 
hand  at  the  game  and  had  been  there  before;  but 
they  knew  better.  I  strolled  to  the  fruit  stand,  and 
it  was  just  ten  minutes  past  one.  Fifty  minutes 
ahead  of  time !  That  fifty  minutes  seemed  to  me  to 
be  fifty  hours ! 

At  exactly  two  o'clock  by  the  watch  Morris  and 
the  trainer  loomed  in  sight.  Both  greeted  me  cor- 
dially. ]\Iorris,  acting  as  spokesman,  said:  "Did 
you  bring  the  money?"  I  said,  "Yes,  Mr.  Morris,  I 
was  at  the  bank  at  ten  o'clock  this  morning  and 
brought  all  I  had,  two  hundred  and  fifteen  dollars." 

"That's  good,"  said  Morris.  "Today  I  intend 
showing  you  how  to  earn  money  without  working. 
Today  is  going  to  be  the  start  of  your  career  as  a 
good  business  man." 

T  thanked  him.  He  then  turned  to  the  trainer  and 
said :  "Now,  Jack,  you  go  over  to  the  stable.  Be 
sure  and  hop  the  horse.  Give  him  an  extra  load, 
because  this  means  a  great  deal  to  Mr.  Brolaski  and 
yourself.     Be  sure  and  tell  the  jockey  that  Mr.  Bro- 


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18  Easy  Money. 


laski  will  have  a  bet  down  for  him,  as  well  as  your- 
self, and  be  sure  and  hop  the  horse." 

Turning  to  me  he  said  :  "Of  course,  Mr.  Brolaski, 
you  will  put  a  bet  down  for  the  jockey?" 

"Certainly,"  said  I.  If  Morris  had  asked  me  I 
would  have  put  a  bet  down  for  the  King  of  England. 
All  I  could  see  was  the  winning  of  big  money  and 
getting  it  into  my  possession. 

The  trainer  left  us.  Morris  whispered  to  me,  con- 
fidentially:  "Now,  Mr.  Brolaski,  we  had  better  not 
be  seen  together,  as  my  employer  may  accidentally 
stroll  this  way.  Our  horse  starts  in  the  third  race. 
I  don't  want  you  to  bet  a  cent  until  that  time.  I 
want  you  to  go  up  into  the  grand  stand  and  watch 
the  first  and  second  races,  and  meet  me  here  for  the 
third  race." 

I  thanked  him  and  told  him  I  would  obey  instruc- 
tions. 

Just  about  the  time  he  left  me  Officer  Cunning- 
ham, who  was  in  charge  of  the  race  track  police,  and 
knew  me  well,  came  to  me  and  said :  "Harry,  what 
are  you  doing  here  ?  Does  your  father  know  you  are 
here?"    I  said  he  did  not.  • 

"Well,"  said  he,  "you  had  better  take  an  old  bird's 
advice  and  not  bet  on  the  ponies.  If  your  old  man 
knew  you  were  out  here  he  would  break  your  neck." 

I  laughed  and  said:  "I  guess  I  can  take  care  of 
myself.  I  don't  need  any  advice  from  you  or  my  old 
man." 


My  First  Bet.  19 

With  that  eg-otistical  shot  I  sauntered  up  into  the 
grand  stand  to  watch  the  running  of  the  first  and 
second  races.  I  must  say  they  did  not  enthuse  me. 
I  did  not  see  any  sport  in  it.  The  finishing  of  these 
two  races  was  close,  but  I  did  not  have  any  money 
wagered  on  the  contest  and  merely  looked  on  in 
calm  wonderment  at  my  new  surroundings. 

After  the  finish  of  the  second  race  I  was  the  first 
person  out  of  the  grand  stand,  and  hurried  to  the 
fruit  stand  to  meet  Morris,  whom  I  found  there 
waiting  for  me.  He  took  me  into  the  betting  ring, 
saying  as  we  walked  along :  "Take  that  badge  off 
the  lapel  of  your  coat,  Mr.  Brolaski,  as  I  don't  w^ant 
any  of  the  touts  to  get  hold  of  you.  If  they  see  you 
are  wearing  that  badge  they  will  know  you  are  a 
beginner."    I  did  as  Morris  requested. 

In  a  little  while,  when  the  betting  ring  had  be- 
come congested  with  people,  and  the  bookmakers 
had  put  up  the  prices  against  the  horses  on  their 
slates,  Morris  whispered  to  me :  "Now  follow  me 
with  your  money  and  bet  it  as  I  direct." 

We  walked  up  to  a  bookmaker  and  I  bet  him  one 
hundred  dollars  on  the  horse  named  by  Morris,  and 
received  a  ticket  calling  for  eight  hundred  dollars  in 
the  event  of  the  horse  winning  the  race.  He  then 
took  me  over  to  another  bookmaker  and  there  T  bet 
fifty  dollars  on  the  same  horse  and  received  a  ticket 
calling  for  five  hundred  dollars,  the  odds  on  the 
horse  having  gone  up  from  eight  to  one  to  ten  tQ  one. 


20  Easy  Money. 

Morris  said :  "Now,  Mr.  Brolaski,  you  go  up  into 
the  grand  stand  and  sit  down.  Leave  the  other 
sixty-five  dollars  with  me  and  I  will  have  it  bet  for 
the  jockey  and  trainer." 

He  cautioned  me  again  not  to  speak  to  anyone, 
and  I  left  him  and  went  up  into  the  grand  stand. 

In  about  fifteen  minutes  Morris  came  to  me  in 
the  grand  stand  and  said :  "I  bet  the  other  sixty- 
five  dollars,  fifty  dollars  for  the  trainer  and  fifteen 
dollars  for  the  jockey.  I  sent  the  tickets  over  to  the 
stable.  Now,  as  soon  as  this  race  is  over,  Mr.  Bro- 
laski, you  meet  me  again  at  the  fruit  stand.  I  am 
going  to  place  a  lot  of  money  for  the  owner  of  the 
horse  now." 

My  feelings  and  emotions  from  the  time  he  left 
me  until  the  horses  came  out  of  the  paddock  and 
went  to  the  post  were  something  terrible.  My 
brain  was  in  a  whirl.  I  was  all  on  nettles,  all  in  a 
'tremble.  I  was  not  myself;  I  was  like  a  man  intoxi- 
cated; I  saw  visions. 

In  a  few  moments  the  horses  went  to  the  post  and 
were  off!  They  all  looked  alike  to  me,  colors, 
jockeys  and  horses.  I  saw  one  mass  of  horse-flesh 
over  on  the  back  stretch.  In  a  moment  or  two  they 
were  at  the  three-quarter  pole,  and  then,  in  a  few 
seconds,  they  were  rounding  into  the  stretch.  I 
still  could  not  distinguish  my  horse  from  any  of  the 
rest,  but  about  the  time  they  reached  the  paddock 
gate  I  noticed  the  colors  of  the  horse  that  I  had  bet 
on  and  saw  that  it  was  in  front  by  about  a  length. 


My  First  Bet.  21 

From  the  time  I  distinguished  my  horse  until  the 
finish  I  was  like  a  crazy  man.  I  stood  on  my  chair 
and  shouted,  "Come  on,  come  on !"  I  snapped  my 
fingers.  When  the  finish  came  I  would  have  sworn 
my  horse  won  by  six  or  eight  lengths,  when  as  a 
matter  of  fact  he  only  won  by  a  nose. 

When  I  saw  the  number  of  my  horse  hung  up  I 
relaxed  somewhat  from  the  strain  under  which  I  had 
been  laboring,  and  was  actually  weak  from  excite- 
ment; for  the  gambling  fever  had  absolute  control 
of  me. 

The  stocks,  the  ducking  stool,  the  pillory  and  the 
rock  pile  are  the  proper  homes  for  the  professional 
crooked  gambler,  but  those  whom  he  robs  deserve 
only  pity.  No  person  who  has  not  felt  it  can  appre- 
ciate the  absorbing  passion,  the  fierce  lust  for  gain 
that  seizes  upon  the  victim  of  the  gambling  mania. 
At  first  he  skirts  only  the  outer  edge  of  the  whirl- 
pool, trying  to  capture  here  and  there  a  little  fish, 
the  silvery  sheen  of  whose  scales  entices  him. 
Grown  bolder  with  success,  and  quite  confident  of 
his  ability  to  withdraw  at  will,  he  steps  in  a  little 
deeper,  and  then  a  little  deeper,  to  obtain  larger 
fish.  Bye  and  bye  the  swift,  circling,  inexorable 
current  seizes  him.  His  feet  lose  their  hold.  He 
ceases  to  struggle,  or  even  to  wish  to  struggle.  He 
abandons  everything  to  the  fierce  passion  of  the 
swirl.  Conscience  is  stifled.  The  calls  of  honor  fall 
upon  deafened  ears.  The  pleas  of  wife  and  children 
are  unheeded.    The  demon  of  greed  has  him  in  its 


22 


Easy  Money. 


dire,  relentless  clutch,  and  at  the  last  he  is  sucked 
into  the  vortex  whose  bottom  is  in  the  fires  of  hell! 
It  might  have  saved  twenty  years  of  my  life  to  de- 
cency if  the  horse  on  which  I  had  bet  my  money  had 
lost  the  race.     But,  unfortunately  for  me,  he  won, 


FIFTH  RACE 

BRONZE  WINIr     102 
UAKRY  NEW        46 

/i/ll  CfSOA/ 

Ukevieiv  Belle     95 
HOODWINK  93 

STAR  COTTON      94 

Linii  elSin    90 

A/urr 
UlUa.  IM 

EVA  RICE  90 


3-^  /-3 
3  3-^ 

S^'S  7-/0 

/^  3 

60  ^0 
\    / 


Bookmakers'  Slate  Showing  the  Betting  Prices  to  the  Public. 

and  I  thought,  poor  fool  that  I  was,  that  I  was  the 
smartest  individual  on  the  race  track,  and  1  would 
not  have  exchanged  the  friendship  of  Morris  for  that 
of  the   President  of  the  United   States,  the  Arch- 


My  First  Bet.  23 

bishop  of  Canterbury  and   Andrew  Carnegie  com- 
bined. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  I  was  the  rawest  sucker  in  the 
City  of  St.  Louis.  Morris  had  probably  made  with 
one,  two  or  three  other  greenhorns  the  same  ar- 
rangement that  he  had  with  me,  designating  in  each 
instance  a  different  horse.  If  any  one  of  these 
horses  won  the  race,  Morris  would  share  the  win- 
nings of  his  victim  and  explain  to  the  others  how  it 
was  that  they  lost.  He  would  also  obtain  from  each 
of  his  customers  as  he  did  from  me,  money  to  place 
for  the  jockey  and  trainer  of  the  "fixed"  horse,  and 
this  money  he  would  place  where  it  would  do  the 
most  good,  namely,  in  his  pocket. 

I  cantered  down  stairs  as  fast  as  I  could  and  met 
Morris,  who  said,  "I  will  get  these  tickets  cashed  for 

you." 

"No,"  said  I,  "I  will  get  them  cashed  myself. 
Show  me  where  to  go." 

He  did.  I  received  from  one  bookmaker  nine 
hundred  dollars  and  from  another  one  five  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars,  making  fourteen  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars.  Morris  then  took  me  to  the  second  floor  of 
the  grand  stand  and  explained  to  me  about  dividing 
the  money.  He  said  that  I  had  fourteen  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars,  of  which  he  was  entitled  to  one- 
half,  as  this  was  customary.  I  gave  him  seven 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars,  which  left  me 
winner  on  the  day  of  five  hundred  and  ten  dollars. 


24  Easy  Money. 

Morris,  of  course,  did  not  bet  the  sixty-five  dollars 
that  he  was  supposed  to  have  wagered  for  the  trainer 
and  jockey,  and  he  would  not  have  shown  up  to  meet 
me  had  my  horse  not  won.  He  stood  to  win  seven 
hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  if  the  horse  won, 
and  sixty-five  dollars  if  it  lost ;  which  would  have 
been  a  good  day's  work  for  him. 

Morris  escorted  me  to  the  gate  of  the  race  track 
and  would  not  permit  me  to  stay  and  witness  the 
other  three  races,  explaining  to  me  that  the  touts 
were  very  dangerous  and  they  might  try  to  take  my 
money  away  from  me.  I  rebelled  and  said,  "Oh  no, 
Mr.  Morris,  I  am  too  old  a  bird  now  for  any  tout  to 
control  me."  But  he  insisted  on  seeing  me  on  the 
street  car  that  was  headed  for  the  city. 

Upon  arriving  at  the  steamer  "Annie  P.  Silver," 
about  five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  I  was  met  by  my 
father,  who  wanted  to  know  where  I  had  been,  and 
in  a  very  lordly  manner  I  informed  him  that  I  had 
been  to  the  race  track  and  had  won  five  hundred  and 
ten  dollars  on  a  "sure  thing,"  and  that  he  had  better 
get  some  one  to  take  my  place  on  the  first  of  the 
month,  as  I  intended  to  quit  my  position,  that  I  was 
tired  of  slaving,  and  had  found  a  new  friend  who 
was  going  to  make  me  rich. 

My  father  sat  back  in  his  chair,  looked  me 
squarely  in  the  eye  and  gave  me  the  first  strenuous 
lecture  of  my  life,  using  much  of  the  vocabulary  of 
the  average  Mississippi  River  steamboat  captain. 
He  said  that  of  all  the  pinheads,  of  all  the  fools,  and 


My  First  Bet.  25 

of  all  the  weak-kneed  sucklings  of  boys  that  he  had 
ever  seen  or  known  I  clapped  the  climax.  He  de- 
nounced Mr.  Morris  as  a  tout,  a  thief,  a  crook,  a  con- 
fidence man  and  everything  on  earth  but  what  was 
right  and  just  and  good  in  a  man. 

I  stood  it  as  long  as  I  could  and  then  said : 
"Father,  you  don't  know  Mr.  Morris.  You  don't 
know  what  he  is.  You  never  met  him.  I  will  not 
stand  here  and  hear  him  abused.  Here  is  the  money. 
Seeing  is  believing." 

When  my  father  saw  he  could  not  control  me  by 
abusive  methods  and  harsh  talk,  he  reasoned  with 
me  and  talked  with  me  for  two  hours,  trying  to  win 
me  away  from  my  determination  to  become  a  gam- 
bler. But  I  had  contracted  the  contagious  disease 
and  the  germ  had  grown  so  fast  after  becoming  inoc- 
ulated into  my  system  that  mine  was  a  hopeless  case 
by  seven  o'clock  that  evening. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  GAMBLING  GERM  GROW.S— A  MOTH- 
ER'S LOVE. 

The  first  use  to  which  a  novice  usually  puts  his 
first  illicit  gains  is  to  make  extravagant  expenditure 
of  a  portion  of  them.  I  proved  no  exception  to  the 
rule.  I  did  not  return  to  a  healthful  home  supper, 
as  had  alvv^ays  been  my  custom,  but  invited  an  old 
acquaintance  of  my  own  age  to  dine  with  me  at  Mil- 
ford's  restaurant.  I  ordered  the  costliest  dishes  on 
the  menu,  which  we  washed  down  with  "White 
Rock"  and  "Green  Seal;"  and  having  tossed  the 
waiter  a  tip  equal  to  what  had  theretofore  been  with 
me  a  day's  earnings,  we  adjourned  to  the  Grand  Bil- 
liard Hall  at  the  corner  of  Sixth  and  Pine  Streets. 
There  we  beheld  a  pin  pool  game  in  progress.  The 
game-keeper  would  place  a  dozen  little  numbered 
balls  in  a  leather  bottle,  shake  them  up  well  and  toss 
one  to  each  bettor,  who  had  previously  paid  the 
necessary  entrance  money;  the  remainder  of  the 
balls  being  left  in  the  bottle. 

I  knew  as  little  about  the  game  as  a  bull  calf 
knows  about  cooking  an  omelette,  but  promptly 
stepped  up  to  the  table  to  take  part  in  the  game; 
and  shortly  after  midnight  I  had  succeeded  in  di- 
vesting myself  of  one  hundred  and  ten  dollars  of  my 
race-track  winnings. 

26 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  27 

Months  later  the  mysteries  and  miseries  of  pin 
pool  were  explained  to  me,  and  I  learned  how  easily 
I  had  been  parted  from  my  money.  I  gambled  on 
the  hij^h.  Each  player  on  receipt  of  a  ball  would 
call  out  its  number.  One  of  the  players  would  wait 
until  the  others  had  called  out  their  numbers,  then 
the  sure-thing  player  would  call  a  higher  number 
than  the  highest  called,  provided  the  highest  num- 
ber was  called  by  a  sucker.  I  played  the  part  of 
sucker  on  that  occasion,  and  played  it  to  perfection. 
I  was  too  much  of  a  gentleman  to  ask  the  winner  to 
exhibit  the  ball  whose  number  he  had  called.  I  took 
his  word  for  it,  and  the  dealer,  who  was  in  with  him, 
also  took  h*is  word  for  it. 

Months  subsequently,  after  I  had  graduated  from 
the  producing  to  the  consuming  class,  I  made  a  deal 
with  the  game-keeper,  and  together  we  pursued  the 
honest  industry  of  gathering  in  at  the  pool  table 
the  surplus  funds  of  confiding  and  convivial  youths. 

Years  afterwards,  at  the  mining  camp  of  Hell's 
Delight,  in  Rattlesnake  Canyon,  Arizona,  in  com- 
pany with  an  honest  partner,  I  attempted  to  intro- 
duce the  governing  principle  of  St.  Louis  pool  into 
a  friendly  game  of  poker. 

I  would  call  my  opponent's  bet,  and  when  he  said 
"kings,"  and  exhibited  his  hand,  I  would  call  out 
"aces,"  gather  in  the  pot  with  one  hand,  and  with 
the  other  toss  my  cards  on  the  table,  face  downward. 
My  confederate  would  quickly  pick  up  the  cards 
and  shuffle  them  into  the  deck. 


28  Easy  Money. 

This  plan  worked  well  for  a  while,  until  I  "called" 
a  grizzled  miner,  who  was  in  the  game,  and  who 
responded,  "jacks."  I  said  "queens,"  and  threw  my 
cards  face  down  on  the  table,  having  only  a  pair  of 
tens.  "Hold  on,  sonny,"  said  he,  placing  a  huge 
horny  paw  over  my  cards.  "If  you  have  got  queens 
thar  are  five  of  sich  in  the  deck ;  for,  with  my  jacks 
I've  got  three  queens  myself;"  and  he  exhibited  his 
hand. 

"Oh  well,"  said  I,  "your  hand  is  the  best;  take 
the  pot." 

"Nat'r'ly,"  said  he,  "I'll  take  the  pot;  but  that 
ain't  all  I'll  take.  Gentlemen  who  make  mistakes  in 
their  hands  are  required  by  the  rules  of  this  yere 
camp  to  rectify  them.  You  and  your  pal  here  hev 
made  several  sich  mistakes  by  which  you  have  cap- 
tured eighty  dollars  of  my  money,  where  if  you  had 
not  made  sich  mistakes  I  would  hev  had  eighty 
dollars  of  your  money.  You  want  to  hand  me  over 
between  you  one  hundred  and  sixty  dollars,  and  to 
do  it  pretty  damned  quick,  and  then  to  get  out  of 
this  yere  camp  on  the  stage  tomorrow  morning.  If 
you  don't  do  it,  you  won't  leave  it  at  all ;  for  the 
boys  are  just  aching  for  a  hanging  bee,  and  you 
pair  will  make  a  good  starter  for  one." 

We  contributed  one  hundred  and  sixty  dollars  to 
the  exchequer  of  the  honest  miner,  and  promptly,  if 
not  cheerfully;  and  we  were  out-going  passengers 
on  the  stage  the  next  morning. 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  29 

To  return  to  our  "mutton,"  as  the  French  writers 
say,  my  friend  and  I,  along  with  two  other  festive 
youths,  after  leaving  the  pool-room,  hired  a  hack  to 
take  us  through  the  red-light  district.  It  is  not  con- 
sidered the  proper  thing  on  such  excursions  for  any 
of  the  party  to  really  stray  from  the  paths  of  recti- 
tude. You  do  not  tarry  long  in  any  one  of  the  half 
dozen  houses  of  evil  repute  that  you  visit.  You  call 
for  wine  and  enjoy  for  ten  minutes  the  elevated  so- 
ciety and  intellectual  conversation  of  the  enamelled 
ladies,  the  puttied,  painted  and  grained  damsels 
who  ply  their  vocations  as  bawds.  I  had  never  be- 
fore been  on  such  an  expedition,  and  I  did  not  see 
much  fun  in  it;  but  it  was  up  to  me  to  make  many 
different  kinds  of  an  ass  of  myself  with  my  race- 
track money,  so  I  "went  the  rounds." 

After  I  had  paid  for  the  hack  and  a  dozen  bottles 
of  champagne,  and  "loaned"  my  new-found  friends 
the  money  they  asked  for,  I  reached  my  home  at 
four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  having  squandered  in 
all  two  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  of  the  five 
hundred  and  ten  dollars  won  at  the  race  track.  I 
tip-toed  up  the  front  steps,  put  the  key  in  the  door 
noiselessly,  and  quietly  ascended  the  stairs. 

When  I  reached  the  second  floor  I  heard  my 
mother's  voice  calling,  "Harry,  come  here."  I  went 
into  her  room,  kissed  her  and  she  then  asked  me 
where  I  had  been.  I  choked  up  a  little  bit,  but 
bravely  told  her  the  truth.    She  said :    "Well,  go  to 


30  Easy  Money. 

bed  now.  Have  a  good  night's  sleep  and  we  will 
talk  it  over  in  the  morning." 

This  hurt  me  a  thousand  times  more  than  the 
lecture  my  father  had  given  me  for  two  hours. 

Being  completely  exhausted  and  tired  out,  I  went 
to  bed,  but  could  not  sleep.  My  dreams  this  first 
night  were  something  terrible.  I  was  seeing  the 
world,  and  oh,  such  a  world  it  was ! 

About  five-thirty  in  the  morning,  after  having 
about  one  and  a  half  hours'  sleep,  or  rather  one  and 
a  half  hours'  tossing  in  bed  with  no  sleep,  I  made  up 
iny  mind  to  get  up  and  leave  a  note  for  my  mother, 
saying  I  would  see  her  in  the  evening.  I  did  not 
have  the  nerve  to  face  her.  I  slipped  out  of  the 
house  without  any  breakfast,  went  down  town 
where  I  bought  coffee  and  eggs,  and  going  doWn  to 
the  steamer  "Annie  P.  Silver"  I  went  to  work  about 
seven  o'clock,  an  hour  ahead  of  time. 

Upon  the  arrival  of  my  father  at  the  office  of  the 
steamer,  about  eight  o'clock,  I  was  in  for  another 
strenuous  time.  After  a  hog  has  departed  this  life 
he  is  placed  in  boiling  water  in  order  to  enable  the 
butcher  to  scrape  his  hair  off!  I  do  not  think  there 
ever  was  a  hog  put  in  water  as  hot  as  that  I  was 
in,  and  which  my  father  was  boiling  around  me. 
But,  instead  of  doing  good,  it  only  made  me  bull- 
headed  and  determined.  I  made  up  my  mind  to  go 
and  hunt  up  Morris,  and  I  quit  my  position  then 
and  there;  or,  to  do  my  father  justice,  I  must  say 
that  I  did  not  quit :  my  father  fired  me. 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  31 

I  waited  around  the  boat,  thinking  perhaps  I 
could  make  up  with  my  father,  and  wondering 
where  I  would  be  able  to  find  Mr.  Morris,  v/hen, 
about  nine-thirty,  he  and  Jack,  the  trainer,  ap- 
peared. My  father  saw  them  coming  and  he  joinerl 
us. 

A  teamster  exhorting  an  impenitent  and  refrac- 
tory mule  has  one  vocabulary.  The  first  mate  of  a 
Mississippi  River  steamer,  who  seeks  to  expedite 
the  movements  of  the  deck  hands  when  they  are 
transporting  wood  from  the  levee  at  midnight  upon 
their  backs,  has  another;  but  no  expert  in  philology, 
no  dictionary  maker  in  Europe  or  America  could 
have  equalled  my  father  that  morning  in  pungency 
and  fluency  of  speech.  He  went  so  far  as  to  doubt 
whether  the  mother  of  Morris  was  the  possessor  of 
a  valid  marriage  certificate,  and  when  he  addressed 
Jack,  the  trainer,  he  fulfilled  a  text  of  scripture  and 
"clothed  himself  with  cursing  as  with  a  garment." 
If  the  language  of  my  father  were  to  be  repeated 
and  printed  it  would  burn  a  hole  in  this  book. 

My  father  ordered  us  all  off  the  steamer,  and  we 
went  up  town  together.  On  the  way  up  I  told 
Morris  of  my  experience  the  night  before.  Then 
he  commenced  to  give  me  fatherly  advice;  but  he 
saw  that  I  resented  it  and  desisted. 

Morris  and  Jack,  the  trainer,  had  two  sure  things 
for  this  day  and  wanted  me  to  bet  my  two  hundred 
and  eighty-five  dollars,  which  I  readily  agreed  to 
do,  making  an  appointment  with  them  to  meet  them 


32  Easy  Money. 

in  the  paddock;  Morris  explaining-  to  me  how  to 
purchase  a  paddock  badge,  and  how  to  act  naturally- 
after  reaching  the  paddock.  After  swearing  me  to 
secrecy  again,  they  left  me.  Needless  to  say  I  was 
all  anxiety,  expecting,  of  course,  to  do  a  great  deal 
better  today  than  I  did  on  my  first  day,  on  account 
of  being  able,  as  I  thought,  to  handle  my  own 
money. 

Arriving  at  the  race  track  at  about  one-thirty,  I 
purchased  a  ticket.  The  boys  outside  the  gate 
knew  that  I  was  a  green  one.  They  endeavored  and 
used  all  means  and  tricks  to  get  me  to  purchase  their 
stable  information ;  but  in  vain. 

I  entered  the  gate  and  went  directly  to  the  pad- 
dock, but  found  no  one  there.  I  was  a  little  amazed 
at  the  time.  I  did  not  know  then  that  the  races  did 
not  begin  until  two-thirty.  Most  of  the  horses  were 
still  over  at  the  stables.  I  could  not  stand  the 
strain  and  nervousness  of  waiting  for  Morris  and 
Jack,  the  trainer,  so  I  sauntered  into  the  betting 
ring. 

As  two  o'clock  neared  I  went  into  the  paddock, 
where  I  found  Morris  and  Jack  waiting  for  me. 
They  took  me  ofif  to  one  side  again,  although  it 
was  not  necessary,  because  at  the  time  there  was 
no  one  in  the  paddock  but  us.  They  told  me  that  I 
would  have  to  bet  two  hundred  dollars  for  the 
jockey  and  trainer,  which  I  agreed  to  do.  They  in- 
formed me  that  they  had  two  "sure  things;"  one  in 
the  first  and  one  in  the  last  race. 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows,  33 

In  a  few  minutes  the  horses  commenced  to  arrive 
and  the  paddock  scene  became  very  animated.  Mor- 
ris and  Jack  left  me  to  go  into  the  betting  ring. 

About  two-fifteen,  after  the  prices  had  been  put 
up  by  the  bookmakers  and  betting  was  pretty  well 
under  way,  Morris  and  Jack  came  back  to  where 
they  had  left  me  and  gave  me  the  name  of  a  horse. 
They  said :  "Come  on  now ;  we  want  to  show  you 
how  to  bet  your  money.  You  will  give  us  two  hun- 
dred dollars.  Jack  will  take  one  hundred  and  I  will 
take  one  hundred  and  bet  for  you.  Then  you  can 
bet  the  balance  for  yourself.  Don't  speak  to  us 
while  we  are  in  the  betting  ring,  but  just  follow 
along  behind." 

I  gave  each  of  them  one  hundred  dollars.  As  we 
passed  into  the  betting  ring  from  the  paddock  they 
separated,  Morris  saying  to  me  to  follow  him, 
which  I  did.  Going  up  to  the  bookmaker  he  bet  one 
hundred  dollars  on  the  horse  that  he  had  picked  to 
win  the  race.  He  received  a  ticket  calling  for  five 
hundred  dollars.  He  then  whispered  to  me :  "Now, 
you  bet  all  of  yours  on  this  same  horse,  but  not  with 
this  bookmaker." 

I  looked  around  the  ring  and  saw  plenty  of  five 
to  one  odds.  So,  going  up  to  a  bookmaker  I  bet  him 
one  hundred  dollars,  receiving  a  ticket  calling  for 
five  hundred  dollars  to  one  hundred  dollars.  Look- 
ing around  I  saw  six  to  one  against  the  same  horse 
at  another  betting  stand,  and  I  went  there  and  bet 
another  hundred  dollars,  receiving  a  ticket  calling 

(3) 


34  Easy  Money. 

for  six  hundred  dollars.  I  attempted  to  bet  this 
same  bookmaker  another  hundred  dollars  at  the 
same  price,  but  he  said:  "No,  I  will  give  you  five 
to  one."  I  said :  "Very  well,  sir,"  and  gave  him  my 
last  one  hundred  dollars,  receiving  a  ticket  calling 
for  five  hundred  dollars. 

After  receiving  this  ticket  I  looked  around  the 
ring  and  saw  that  there  were  plenty  of  seven  to  one 
bets  against  the  same  horse.  By  my  stupidity,  or 
rather  my  innocence,  this  bookmaker  had  talked  me 
out  of  two  hundred  dollars.  He  saw  I  was  green 
and  took  advantage  of  me. 

I  went  up  into  the  grand  stand,  and,  reaching  the 
same  place  where  I  had  been  the  day  before,  found 
my  "lucky  chair,"  as  I  considered  it,  occupied.  I 
made  the  man  an  ofifer  of  five  dollars  if  he  would 
give  me  the  chair  to  watch  the  race  in,  which  he  did, 
and  I  felt  as  though  I  could  not  lose. 

In  a  few  moments  the  horses  came  out  of  the  pad- 
dock, and  I  was  all  in  a  quiver  again.  Soon  they 
were  at  the  post,  and  then  "of¥!" 

As  the  day  before,  I  could  not  distinguish  one 
horse  from  another;  but  when  they  rounded  into 
the  head  of  the  stretch,  I  saw  that  my  horse  was  not 
in  the  first  bunch  of  six  or  seven,  and  I  actually 
commenced  to  die.  The  suffering  and  anguish  were 
something  terrible.  My  hopes  were  all  blasted  in 
a  shorter  time  than  it  takes  me  to  describe  it.  But 
when  they  reached  the  paddock  gate  I  saw  the 
colors  of  my  horse  about  fourth  and  his  negro  rider 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  35 

whipping  him  as  hard  as  he  could.  I  commenced 
to  shout  and  work  my  hands  up  and  down  in  motion 
with  the  whip  the  jockey  was  using  on  the  horse. 
At  every  bound  and  leap  my  horse  seemed  to  gain  a 
little — inch  by  inch.  The  few  seconds  to  the  finish 
seemed  to  me  to  be  a  year.  All  the  horses  reached 
the  wire  together — it  seemed  to  me  from  where  I 
was  sitting — and  I  thought  my  horse  had  finished 
third.  The, judges,  on  account  of  the  close  finish, 
did  not  display  the  numbers  quickly,  and  the  differ- 
ent bettors  commenced  to  shout  for  the  numbers 
they  wanted  put  up. 

In  a  few  moments  I  saw  the  number  of  my  horse 
going  up  as  winner  of  the  race.  From  the  depths 
of  dispair  and  anguish  to  the  joy  and  happiness  of  a 
winner  is  a  great  leap ;  something  terrible,  enough 
to  cause  heart  failure  in  an  ordinary  individual. 

Before  I  could  realize  that  I  had  really  won  the 
bet,  Morris  was  beside  me,  whispering  in  my  ear: 
"Did  you  see  the  other  jockeys  pull  their  horses  so 
that  our  horse  could  win?"  I  said,  "Yes."  Morris 
said :  "The  jockey  that  was  second  I  promised  five 
hundred  dollars  more  to.  He  could  have  won  the 
race  hands  down."  I  said.  "All  right,  we  will  give 
it  to  him."  All  glimmerings  of  conscience  had  left 
me  and  I  was  perfectly  willing  to  become  a  scoun- 
drel and  reward  a  fellow  scoundrel. 

Taking  an  inventory  of  my  cash  I  found  that  I 
had  won  sixteen  hundred  dollars,  less  the  two  hun- 
dred dollars  I  gave  to  Morris  and  Jack,  the  trainer. 


36  Easy  Money. 

Now  five  hundred  dollars  more  must  be  taken  for 
the  jockey  that  supposedly  pulled  the  horse  that 
finished  second,  which  left  me  just  nine  hundred 
dollars  winner. 

After  getting  my  tickets  cashed  I  gave  Morris 
five  hundred  dollars.  He  had  made  out  of  the  race 
the  five  hundred  dollars  that  I  had  given  him,  sup- 
posedly for  the  jockey  that  had  finished  second,  the 
five  hundred  dollars  that  he  had  won  from  the  book- 
maker, and  my  one  hundred  dollars  I  had  given  him 
to  bet,  and  the  one  hundred  dollars  that  Jack  had, 
making  twelve  hundred  dollars.  Now,  if  my  horse 
had  lost  they  still  would  have  made  one  hundred 
dollars,  as  of  the  two  hundred  dollars  I  gave  them 
there  was  only  one  hundred  dollars  wagered. 

After  dividing  the  money  as  per  arrangement 
with  Morris,  he  told  me  to  go  up  into  the  grand 
stand  and  sit  down  and  not  bet  on  any  race  until 
the  last  one.  I  obeyed  instructions  for  the  second 
race,  but  when  the  horses  went  to  the  post  in  the 
third  race  I  saw  one  grand  looking  piece  of  horse 
flesh,  clean  cut  limbs  and  proud  head,  and  he 
seemed  to  look  at  me  and  say,  "Well,  old  Sport,  I 
will  win  this  race."  I  looked  at  the  number  on  his 
saddle  cloth,  and  then  at  my  program  to  find  the 
name  of  the  horse,  and  scooted  down  stairs  to 
sneak  a  bet  on  him  without  Morris'  knowledge. 

Going  up  to  the  first  bookmaker  I  saw  that  the 
horse  was  twelve  to  one,  and  not  wishing  to  appear 
as  a  piker  in  the  eyes  of  the  bookmaker,  I  said; 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  37 

"Give  me  two  hundred  dollars  on  ,"  calling 

the  name  of  the  horse.  It  happened  to  be  a  little 
bookmaker  with  a  short  bank  roll,  and  he  said:  "I 
will  take  only  fifty  dollars."  He  gave  me  a  ticket 
calling  for  six  hundred  dollars  to  fifty,  and,  making 
me  believe  by  his  actions  that  the  race  was  fixed,  I 
sauntered  over  to  another  bookmaker  and  offered 
him  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  on  the  same  horse. 
He  took  it,  giving  me  a  ticket  calling  for  eighteen 
hundred  dollars  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars, 
and  said:  "Young  fellow,  do  you  want  any  more?" 
As  he  spoke  in  rather  a  sneering  way,  I,  not  to  be 
outdone,  bet  him  another  hundred  dollars.  Just  as 
he  handed  the  ticket  to  me  the  gong  rang,  meaning 
that  they  were  off  from  the  post  and  betting  would 
have  to  cease. 

I  scrambled  back  into  the  grand  stand  cts  rapidly 
as  I  could,  and  by  the  time  I  reached  my  lucky 
chair  I  found  a  man  standing  on  it  watching  the 
race.  I  did  not  hesitate  one  moment,  but  jumped 
up  alongside  of  him,  pushing  him  over  onto  the  next 
chair. 

I  commenced  to  try  and  distinguish  my  horse. 
By  the  time  I  discovered  the  position  of  the  horses, 
they  were  rounding  into  the  head  of  the  stretch.  I 
saw  one  horse  at  least  ten  lengths  in  front  but 
hadn't  had  time  to  look  on  my  program  for  the 
colors  of  the  horse  I  had  bet  on,  so  consequently 
did  not  think  it  was  mine.  I  anxiously  scanned  the 
bunch  of  four  or  five  that  were  laying  second  to- 


38  Easy  Money. 

gather,  but  quickly  caught  the  number  on  the  arm 
of  the  jockey  of  the  leading  horse,  and  saw  it  was 
the  one  I  had  bet  on. 

When  nearing  the  wire  my  horse  commenced  to 
stop  almost  to  a  walk,  and  a  few  jumps  from  the 
wire,  instead  of  being  eight  or  ten  lengths  in  front, 
he  was  only  about  one-half  the  length  of  his  body 
in  front  of  the  field,  and  it  looked  to  me  as  though 
the  horses  laying  close  to  him  were  taking  two 
strides  to  his  one.  The  last  jump  looked  to  me  as 
though  two  horses  passed  him. 

I  then  commenced  to  figure  in  my  mind  how  I 
could  lie  to  Morris  about  losing  the  three  hundred 
dollars  which  I  had  bet,  and  supposed  I  had  lost, 
when,  lo  and  behold,  up  went  the  number  of  my 
horse  as  the  winner.     He  had  won  by  a  nose. 

My  winnings  on  this  race,  all  my  own,  were 
thirty-four  hundred  dollars ! 

The  excitement,  the  feelings  that  I  had  during 
this  short  space  of  time  are  beyond  description.  The 
perspiration  was  standing  out  all  over  me.  I  was 
in  a  terrible  state  of  exhaustion. 

As  soon  as  the  ofificial  sign  went  up,  I  looked 
around  to  see  if  Morris  was  in  sight,  then  slipped 
down  stairs  to  cash  my  winning  tickets,  which  I 
succeeded  in  doing  without  Morris  or  Jack,  the 
trainer,  seeing  me. 

But  Scotty,  the  tout,  and  Jimmy  Cowen,  his  part- 
ner, got  hold  of  me  and  tried  their  best  to  give  me 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  39 

the  next  race  as  a  fixed  event,  but  I  was  true  blue 
to  Morris  and  did  not  even  listen  to  them. 

Going  back  into  the  grand  stand  I  waited  until 
just  before  the  last  race,  when  I  went  to  meet  Mor- 
ris and  the  trainer.  I  said  nothing  to  them  about 
winning  my  bet,  and,  being  inflated  with  my  own 
self-importance,  when  they  commenced  to  caution 
me  again  to  say  nothing,  and  told  me  to  follow 
them,  I  said:  "Look  here,  boys,  I  am  not  going  to 
tell  anybody  what  we  are  doing."  Morris  looked  up 
rather  surprised,  and  I  continued :  "I  am  no  sucker. 
I  am  on  to  this  betting  game.    Treat  me  as  a  man." 

Morris  said :  "Well,  now,  my  boy,  if  you  want  to 
do  business  with  me;  you  must  do  it  my  way  or  not 
at  all." 

I  was  like  a  punctured  balloon.  I  meekly  said: 
"All  right,  Mr.  Morris,"  and  followed  him  into  the 
betting  ring  like  a  little  sheep,  betting  five  hundred 
dollars  on  the  horse  that  he  and  the  trainer  told  me 
would  win,  receiving  tickets  amounting  to  three 
thousand  dollars.  They  wanted  me  to  watch  this 
race  in  the  paddock  with  them,  saying  they  were 
sure  of  winning. 

Just  before  the  horses  went  out  of  the  paddock  to 
the  race  track  Morris  whispered  to  me :  "Now,  give 
me  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  of  those  tickets  so 
I  can  fix  the  other  jockeys."  I,  without  any  hesi- 
tancy, slipped  them  to  him.  Jack,  the  trainer,  en- 
tertained me  while  Morris  supposedly  went  to  give 
the  tickets  to  the  jockeys.     Morris  came  back  in  a 


40  Easy  Money. 

few  minutes  and  said  that  he  had  done  so.  We  then 
watched  the  race,  which  was  really  no  contest  at  all, 
as  the  horse  we  had  bet  on  got  off  in  front,  led  the 
entire  journey  and  won  by  about  three  lengths. 

Morris  and  Jack,  the  trainer,  went  with  me  while 
I  cashed  the  tickets,  and  they  required  me  to  give 
up  all  the  winnings  except  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  dollars.  I  had  bet  altogether  five  hundred  dol- 
lars on  odds  of  six  to  one,  and  had  wound  up  by 
only  winning  for  my  part  six  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  dollars  on  the  race;  for  Morris  and  Jack,  the 
trainer,  had  received  for  their  valuable  information 
six  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars  that  I  gave  them 
after  the  race  had  been  won,  and  seventeen  hundred 
and  fifty  dollars  in  tickets  which  they  cashed  after 
they  had  bid  me  good-night,  making  their  total  win- 
nings twenty-three  hundred  and  seventy-five  dol- 
lars.   This  was,  to  them;  "easy  money." 

After  making  an  engagement  to  meet  me  the  next 
day  at  the  race  track,  and  exacting  a  [promise  that  I 
would  not  gamble  that  night  but  go  directly  home, 
I  left  the  race  track,  arriving  home  in  time  for  sup- 
per. My  mother  met  me,  and,  not  saying  a  word 
about  my  coming  home  late  the  night  before  or 
anything  else,  she  put  her  arms  around  me  and 
kissed  me  affectionately.  She  kept  the  conversation 
on  bright  subjects  during  our  supper  meal,  and 
asked  me  to  stay  home  and  spend  the  evening  with 
her.  I  commenced  to  feel  very  badly.  I  felt 
ashamed  and  remorseful,  and  the  tug  at  my  heart 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  41 

strings  was  something  terrific.  It  was  the  battle 
of  the  gambling  germ  against  a  mother's  love  and 
the  love  for  a  mother. 

After  supper,  while  sitting  in  the  front  parlor,  she 
quietly  asked  about  a  few  of  my  experiences  of  the 
night  before.  I  described  to  her  some  of  my  gam- 
bling operations  as  briefly  as  I  possibly  could,  and 
also  my  experiences  of  the  previous  night  along  the 
same  lines. 

She  took  my  hand  in  hers  and  proceeded  to  give 
me  the  following  advice:  "Now,  Harry,  I  want 
you  to  stop  your  gambling  for  it  will  ruin  your 
health,  your  reputation  and  your  future.  It  will 
break  your  father's  heart  and  mine.  Your  boy  and 
girl  friends  that  you  have  now  will  desert  you,  and 
the  good  people  of  life  will  shun  you." 

Little  did  I  realize  at  this  time  the  sincerity  and 
truthfulness  of  my  mother's  words.  I  said : 
"Mamma,  we  have  no  money.  I  can  make  us  all 
rich,  give  you  everything  you  want,  if  you  will  let 
me  gamble." 

She  said :  "No,  my  boy,  I  don't  want  that  kind  of 
money,  and  I  ask  you  not  to  gamble.  But  remember 
one  thing,  Harry,  you  are  my  son  and  no  matter 
what  you  do  in  life,  I  want  you  to  never  hesitate  to 
come  and  tell  me,  talk  to  me  and  let  me  try  and 
reason  with  you.  I  have  made  my  request  that  you 
stop  gambling,  yet  I  don't  want  you  to  leave  home. 
If  you  insist  on  gambling  and  won't  take  mother's 
advice,  I  will  not  say  anything  more  to  you  about  it, 


42  Easy  Money. 

except  that  I  never  will  be  satisfied  until  you  give 
up  gambling.  But,  Harry,  while  I  make  the  re- 
quest that  you  stop  gambling,  yet  I  don't  want  you 
to  leave  home.  Whatever  you  do  or  leave  undone 
you  are  my  boy  and  your  mother's  arms  will  ever 
be  open  to  you." 

Ah,  why  did  I  not  listen  to  her?  Why  did  I  for 
twenty  years  vibrate  on  the  ragged  edge  between 
wealth  and  penury?  Why  did  I  consort  with 
thieves  and  scoundrels?  The  same  abilities  that  I 
exhibited  in  crooked  gambling  would  have  brought 
me  as  large  results  in  money  if  used  in  some  legiti- 
mate business,  and  much  larger  results  in  peace  of 
mind  and  in  the  good  opinion  of  those  whose  good 
opinion  is  worth  having. 

With  my  mother's  words  of  love  and  counsel 
ringing  in  my  ears  I  went  to  my  room  to  consider 
what  should  be  my  course  for  the  future,  and  for 
five  long  hours  my  mother's  wishes  and  such  ves- 
tiges of  conscience  as  had  survived  my  illicit  suc- 
cesses at  the  race  track,  fought  within  me  for  mas- 
tery over  the  gambling  mania. 

At  last  the  devil  had  his  way.  Against  my  innate 
sense  of  right  and  wrong,  against  my  desire  to  do 
right,  the  batallions  of  selfishness,  of  greed,  of  fierce 
desire  for  immediate  fortune,  triumphed,  and  I,  a 
lad  of  eighteen,  with  the  conceit  of  a  man  of  thirty, 
determined  to  become  a  full-fledged  gambler;  and 
against  this  sullen  and  deliberate  determination  the 
prayers  of  my  mother,  the  petitions  of  my  sister,  and 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  4-3 

the  remonstrances  of  my  father  were  invoked  in 
vain. 

I  was  now,  in  my  own  conceit,  a  high-class  profes- 
sional sport,  and  as  such  I  visited  the  sporting  alley 
between  Pine  and  Olive  and  Sixth  and  Seventh 
Streets,  St.  Louis,  where  the  famous  turf  exchanges 
of  Dick  Roach  and  Ulman  Brothers  were  in  opera- 
tion, and  others  were  running  pool-rooms;  where 
gambling  began  at  ten  o'clock  in  the  morning  with 
combinations  on  base  ball  games,  where  futures  on 
horses  and  lottery  tickets  were  sold,  where  fake 
quotations  on  mining  stocks  were  posted,  and  where 
you  could  bet  from  twenty-five  cents  to  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars  on  almost  any  kind  of  a  game,  pro- 
vided the  other  fellow  had  from  twenty  to  fifty  per 
cent,  the  best  of  you  when  the  game  was  fair,  and 
one  hundred  per  cent,  when  the  game  was  foul. 

Into  this  alley  I  walked  with  some  modest  mis- 
givings, which  were  engendered  by  the  remem- 
brance of  my  experience  at  the  pool  game  two  nights 
before.  A  crowd  of  men  surrounded  the  pool  stands. 
Some  were  betting  on  horses  that  were  to  run  that 
afernoon  at  the  Fair  Grounds,  some  on  races  that 
were  to  be  run  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  while  others 
were  betting  on  the  result  of  the  day's  races  in  Chi- 
cago. A  gentleman  in  striped  breeches,  a  spotted 
vest,  a  jaunty  coat  and  a  stove-pipe  hat.  bought  five 
hundred  dollars'  worth  of  tickets  on  a  horse  entered 
to  be  raced  at  Chicago  that  day. 


44  Easy  Money. 

My  money  burned  in  my  pockets.  "Shall  I,  a 
decorousl}^  dressed  Missonrian,"  I  said  to  myself, 
"be  outdone  by  this  gaudily  attired  stranger?  No." 
So  I  bet  one  hundred  dollars  on  the  same  horse  with 
odds  of  even  money,  and  with  the  ticket  in  my 
pocket  I  strutted  out. 

At  the  race  track  Morris  and  Jack  met  me  and  re- 
newed their  advice  to  me  to  avoid  talking  with  any- 
body. This  I  resented,  for  I  was  now  entirely  con- 
fident that  what  I  did  not  know  about  the  racing 
game  was  not  worth  knowing. 

Morris  informed  me  that  this  day  they  had  the 
fourth  race  "fixed ;"  that  the  winner  would  be  a 
horse  belonging  to  Mr.  John  Hofifman,  to  whom  he 
would  introduce  me  later. 

After  the  second  race  Morris  and  Jack  brought  a 
man  up  into  the  grandstand  and  introduced  him  to 
me  as  "Mr.  Johnnie  Hoffman,"  owner  and  trainer 
of  the  horse  that  was  fixed  to  win  the  fourth  race. 
Afterwards,  when  I  met  the  real  Mr.  Hoffman,  it 
was  laughable  to  note  the  contrast  between  the  two 
individuals.  Nevertheless,  when  this  "Mr.  Hoff- 
man" asked  me  if  I  would  bet  five  hundred  dollars 
for  him  I  said,  as  I  tumbled  into  the  trap,  "Why 
certainly."  Verily,  I  illustrated  the  proverb  con- 
cerning the  plentousness  of  suckers. 

After  the  running  of  the  third  race  Jack,  Morris 
and  the  supposed  "Mr.  Hoffman"  met  me  in  the  pad- 
dock, where  Hoffman  requested  his  five  hundred 
dollars,  saying  he  wanted  to  bet  it  himself.    Morris 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  45 

wanted  five  hundred  dollars  for  the  jockeys  in  the 
race,  saying  that  he  wanted  to  bet  it.  Then  he  told 
me  to  go  in  and  bet  all  I  had  on  a  horse  they  named 
to  me,  and  that  they  would  wait  in  the  paddock 
until  I  came  out  with  my  tickets,  and  then  they 
would  place  their  bets,  as  they  wanted  to  be  sure 
and  let  me  get  the  best  price. 

I  went  into  the  betting  ring.  I  saw  the  odds 
against  this  horse  were  eight  to  five.  With  the 
first  bookie  I  went  to  I  bet  five  hundred  dollars.  I 
kept  on  betting  until  I  had  placed  all  my  money,  ex- 
cepting three  dollars,  as  I  wanted  to  show  the  boys 
I  was  a  dead  game  sport  and  no  "piker." 

Gathering  all  my  tickets  together  I  went  into  the 
paddock,  where  I  met  Morris,  Jack  and  the  sup- 
posed "Air.  Hoffman."  They  told  me  to  stay  there 
until  they  went  and  bet  the  five  hundred  dollars 
each  that  I  had  given  them,  saying  they  would  see 
me  after  the  race.  With  that  they  left  me,  going 
into  the  betting  ring. 

In  a  few  moments  the  horses  came  on  the  track, 
went  to  the  post  and  were  off !  I  tried  to  distinguish 
my  horse  as  I  had  on  the  previous  days,  and  as  I 
had  become  accustomed  to  the  colors  it  did  not  take 
me  long  to  discover  that  my  horse  was  fifth  in 
position  as  the  animals  rounded  into  the  stretch. 
When  they  were  about  abreast  of  the  paddock  gate 
my  horse  was  about  third  and  was  running  very 
strong.    I  did  not  doubt  that  at  the  outcome  of  the 


46  Easy  Money. 

race  he  would  be  first,  because  the  result  was 
"fixed." 

At  the  finish  the  race  seemed  to  be  very  close  be- 
tween the  first  three  horses ;  but  I  was  calm  and 
confident,  expecting,  of  course,  to  see  the  number 
of  my  horse  go  up  first,  when  horror  of  horrors,  up 
went  another  number  and  then  another  one  and  the 
number  of  my  horse  was  placed  third! 

I  could  hardly  believe  my  eyes.  I  rushed  out  of 
the  paddock  and  ran  through  the  betting  ring  down 
towards  the  judges'  stand  to  see  if  I  had  not  made  a 
mistake. 

Just  before  reaching  the  stand  Morris  and  the  sup- 
posed Hoffman  met  me  and  said :  "Why  our  horse 
won.  The  judges  have  made  a  mistake.  They  will 
surely  change  the  numbers." 

I  said  :  "Of  course  they  have  made  a  mistake.  Our 
horse  won  by  a  length." 

But  in  a  few  seconds  the  official  sign  went  up,  and 
then  Morris  'and  Hoffman  said :  "This  is  highway 
robbery  and  the  judges  ought  to  be  reported."  I 
agreed  with  them  and  said :  "I  will  report  them. 
Whom  can  I  report  to?" 

They,  seeing  I  was  in  earnest,  commenced  to 
smooth  me  down,  telling  me  that  if  I  would  get  two 
hundred  dollars  more  and  start  all  over  they  would 
be  very  careful  and  would  never  do  business  or  try 
to  fix  the  fourth  race,  as  it  was  either  a  stake  race 
or  a  handicap  that  could  be  fixed  to  a  certainty. 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  47 

I  gave  one  gasp  and  looked  at  them !  My  awaken- 
ing was  sudden.  I  commenced  to  realize  the  situa- 
tion. There  I  was,  with  three  dollars  to  my  name, 
no  position,  and,  where  a  few  moments  before  the 
world  held  nothing  but  future  bright  prospects  for 
me,  now  it  was  all  dark  and  dismal.  I  did  not  care 
what  became  of  me  for  an  instant,  when  my  dogged 
determination  came  to  my  rescue,  and,  setting  my 
jaws  hard,  I  said:  "Boys,  I  will  do  the  best  I  can.  I 
haven't  any  more  money,  but  I  am  going  to  learn 
this  game.  I  know  I  can  beat  it,  and  I  am  not  a 
quitter,  even  if  I  am  a  youngster." 

They  patted  me  on  the  back  and  said :  "Good,  old 
boy.  We  are  both  broke,  but  if  you  have  any  friend 
that  you  can  take  us  to  tomorrow,  we  will  declare 
you  in  with  us,  and  make  you  one  of  us  and  will  give 
you  one-third  of  what  we  make  out  of  our  opera- 
tions." 

I  said:  "Shake  on  that,  boys.  I  have  one  or  two 
friends,  and  will  meet  you  at  ten  o'clock  tomorrow 
down  town." 

After  bidding  them  good-bye,  I  went  up  into  the 
grand  stand  to  think  it  all  over. 

I  concluded,  after  a  few  minutes'  reflection,  that  I 
had  over-estimated  my  ability  as  a  race  track 
sharper,  and,  feeling  very  sheepish,  I  concluded  to 
go  home  for  supper.  But  I  fully  made  up  my  mind 
not  to  tell  my  parents  of  my  loss  as  I  did  not  care 
to  be  chided.  I  was  sullen,  remorseful,  peevish  and 
irritable  during  the  supper  hour. 


48  Easy  Money. 

Going  up  to  my  room  shortly  after  supper  I  tried 
to  read  various  books,  but  it  was  impossible.  The 
gambling  fever  was  coursing  through  my  system 
with  the  swiftness  of  quicksilver.  Something  with- 
in me  kept  surging  and  surging  and  saying:  "Stick 
to  it.  Go  get  the  money.  Never  mind  how  you  get 
it,  just  get  it." 

I  spent  almost  half  the  night  in  this  condition, 

I  awoke  early  in  the  jiiorning  and  hurried  down 
stairs  to  obtain  the  morning  paper  and  ascertain  the 
result  of  the  race  at  Chicago  upon  which  I  had  bet 
in  Pool  Alley.  I  nervously  turned  to  the  sporting 
page  and  hastily  glanced  over  the  results  of  the 
Chicago  races. 

My  eyes  were  not  deceiving  me  this  time.  My 
horse  had  won  and  I  now  had  a  capital  of  two  hun- 
dred dollars  of  my  own  to  start  with.  I  resolved 
then  and  there  not  to  tell  Morris  of  my  making  this 
bet  down  town,  but  to  let  them  think  that  I  was 
going  to  obtain  two  hundred  dollars  from  some  sup- 
posed friend. 

Ten  o'clock  found  me  at  Pool  Alley  in  order  to  get 
my  ticket  cashed,  but  I  was  informed  that  I  could 
not  get  my  money  until  twelve.  I  then  went  and 
met  Morris,  and  explained  to  him  that  I  would  get 
two  hundred  dollars  from  a  friend.  He  insisted  that 
I  introduce  him  to  this  friend,  but  I  evaded  it  by 
saying  that  I  would  introduce  him  tomorrow.  I 
promised  to  meet  him  at  the  usual  place  at  the  usual 
hour  that  afternoon. 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  49 

Loafing  around  town  until  the  time  arrived  to  get 
my  ticket  cashed  at  Pool  Alley,  I  encountered  a 
friend  who  had  a  little  money  and  persuaded  him  to 
go  to  the  track  with  me. 

After  getting  my  money  on  the  bet  that  I  had  won 
on  the  Chicago  race,  I  proceeded  to  the  race  track. 
Morris  met  me  as  usual  and  told  me  that  the  race 
they  had  "fixed"  was  the  first  one.  I  noticed  his 
manner  and  also  that  of  Jack,  the  trainer.  They 
were  not  as  cordial  as  they  were  the  day  previous. 
During  our  conference,  the  supposed  Hoffman  came 
by  and  he  was  as  chilly  as  an  iceberg. 

Soon  the  prices  were  put  up  by  the  bookmakers 
in  the  betting  ring.  Morris  told  me  the  nam.e  of  the 
horse  tha.t  would  win,  and  said  that  I  would  not  be 
required  to  put  up  any  money  in  advance  this  time, 
as  he  had  assured  the  jockeys  and  the  trainer  of  my 
"honesty." 

Going  into  the  betting  ring  I  noticed  that  the  odds 
against  the  horse  named  were  four  to  five.  1  would 
be  compelled  to  bet  two  hundred  dollars  in  order  to 
win  one  hundred  and  eighty  dollars,  which  result 
did  not  appeal  to  me  as  especially  attractive.  But 
I  was  afraid  not  to  bet,  as  I  did  not  desire  to  lose  the 
friendship  of  Morris  by  disregarding  his  instruc- 
tions, so  I  proceeded  to  place  my  money. 

T  went  into  the  paddock  and  watched  the  horses 
go  to  the  post.  They  were  off  in  a  few  minutes.  I 
was  a  little  keener  in  trying  to  locate  my  horse  in 
this  race  than  I   had  been  the  day  previous,  and 

(4) 


50  Easy  Money. 

noticed  him  struggling  along  in  last  position.  As 
he  was  the  favorite  in  the  race  all  the  other  jockeys 
were  trying  to  beat  him. 

At  the  head  of  the  stretch  my  horse  ran  into  a 
pocket  between  two  horses,  and  was  pocketed  from 
there  to  the  wire  where  he  finished  third ! 

I,  broke  again,  hopes  all  blasted,  confidence  lost 
in  Morris  and  Jack,  was  like  a  drowning  man  in  the 
middle  of  an  ocean,  grasping  at  a  straw  to  save  him- 
self from  death.  The  world  was  black  to  me. 
Everybody  was  against  me.  It  was  one  of  the  bit- 
terest moments  in  my  life,  and  really  had  a  great 
deal  to  do  with  my  future  career,  for  it  aroused  in 
me  a  dogged  determination  to  thereafter  do  unto 
others  as  they  had  done  unto  me. 

Moiris  and  Jack,  the  trainer,  did  not  hunt  me  up 
this  time  with  an  explanation.  They  knew  that  I 
was  broke  and  financially  a  "dead  one,"  unable  to 
make  further  contributions.  This  infuriated  me  and 
in  a  bitter  mood  I  proceeded  to  find  and  confer  with 
the  two  gentlemen. 

Going  into  the  betting  ring  I  espied  Morris  talk- 
ing to  a  fine  looking  old  gentleman.  Walking  up 
to  them  I  said  in  a  very  brazen  manner:  "What  do 
you  mean  by  your  lying  to  me?  That  race  wasn't 
fixed."  Morris,  taking  me  by  the  arm  and  excusing 
himself  to  the  old  gentleman,  who  afterwards  proved 
to  be  Phil  Chew,  said:  "Don't  make  a  scene  here. 
Let's  go  out  on  the  lawn  and  talk  it  over.  Now, 
Brolaski,  Twill  be  frank  with  you.    Jack  and  I  are 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  51 

not  race  horse  commissioners  or  trainers,  we  are 
hustlers,  money  makers.  We  are  both  broke.  The 
money  we  took  away  from  you  we  gambled  and 
lost.  W'Q  are  trying  to  do  the  best  we  can.  Now, 
you  are  a  good,  smart  youngster,  and  if  you  will  in- 
troduce us  to  some  people,  friends  of  yours,  and  let 
us  work  them  as  we  have  worked  ycni,  we  will  cut 
our  money  up  with  you  and  make  you  a  partner 
with  us.  And  when  we  are  ready  to  go  from  here, 
we  will  leave  Jack  behind,  and  you  and  I  will  go  to 
Cincinnati,  New  Orleans  and  around  the  world  to- 
gether." 

"Morris,"  said  I,  "I  will  do  it.  You  instruct  me. 
I  will  do  the  work."  "All  right,"  said  he.  "Harry, 
we  are  pals  from  now  on.  Don't  say  anything  about 
this  to  Jack.  I  will  let  him  out  and  you  in,  and  here- 
after we  will  work  together.  You  are  surely  ac- 
quainted with  one  or  two  people  who  are  here  this 
afternoon.  Go  into  the  betting  ring,  look  around 
and  see  if  you  see  any  of  your  friends,  hunt  me  up, 
and  I  will  tell  you  what  to  say  to  them. 

As  the  hungry  hawk  hunteth  for  the  June  bug,  as 
the  mephitic  turkey  buzzard  hunteth  for  the  carcass, 
so  did  I  hunt  for  a  friend.  My  motto  was  henceforth 
to  be : 

"Beat  your  neighbor  all  you  can, 
He'll  do  the  same  for  you." 

My  idea  of  a  "friend"  was  a  gentleman  who  would 
swallow  my  lies,  one  whose  confidence  I  could  abuse 


52 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  53 

and  whose  pocket  I  could  deplete  with  certainty, 
celerity  and  security. 

Jack  Eveling  was  my  first  victim.  "Jack,  old  fel- 
low," said  I,  "this  first  race  is  fixed,  and  I  know  the 
fellow  who  has  fixed  it.  If  you  want  to  win  some 
sure  money  I  will  take  you  to  him.  But  he  isn't 
here  for  his  health.  If  he  gives  you  the  information 
you  will  have  to  put  a  bet  down  for  him." 

Just  then  Scotty,  the  tout,  and  Jimmy. Cowen  ap- 
proached us.  There  is  no  honor  among  race  track 
thieves  any  more  than  among  worm-hunting  hens. 
Let  a  hen  obtain  a  nice,  fat  worm  by  diligent 
scratching  and  the  other  hens  will  not  scratch  for 
worms  of  their  own  finding.  They  prefer  to  chase 
the  first  hen  around  the  barn  yard  trying  to  snatch 
her  worm  from  her. 

Thus  it  was  with  Scotty,  the  tout,  and  Jimmy 
Cowen.  Jack  Eveling  was  my  worm  and  they  pro- 
posed to  gobble  him  away  from  me.  And  so  Jimmy 
Cowen  stood  in  front  of  us  with  a  handful  of  bogus 
tickets  and  in  a  loud  tone  of  voice  counted  the  sum 
he  claimed  to  have  bet  for  a  friend. 

Then  Scotty,  the  tout,  came  forward,  and,  ap- 
proaching me,  confidentially  said:  "Did  you  notice 
that  horse  Mr.  Chinn's  commissioner  (pointing  to 
Jimmy  Cowen)  has  bet  on?"  I  glared  him  in  the 
eye  and  replied,  "No,  I  haven't  seen  Mr.  Chinn's 
commissioner."  Then  Cowen  turned  to  me  and 
said:  "Will  you  kindly  let  me  have  your  lead  pencil. 


54>  Easy  Money. 

I  have  dropped  mine  somewhere  and  I  want  to  fig- 
ure up  how  much  money  I  have  bet  for  my  boss." 

With  some  misgivings  I  accommodated  the  gen- 
tleman with  my  pencil,  and  watched  him  while  he 
added  suppositious  figures  with  a  celerity  that 
would  make  a  Chinese  automatic  adding  machine 
look  like  thirty  cents. 

He  pocketed  my  pencil  as  I  supposed  he  would, 
and  said:  "Now,  if  you  boys  have  any  money  and 
will  bet  fifty  dollars  for  me,  I  will  tell  you  what 
horse  I  am  betting  on." 

I  once  played  the  part  of  Pooh  Bah  in  the  Mikado, 
and  practiced  sneering  until  I  became  an  adept  at 
it.  I  sneered  at  Cowen  my  choicest  sneer,  and  re- 
plied. "No,  I  don't  care  to  know  what  horse  you 
have  bet  about  two  dollars  on.  This  race  is  fixed 
and  if  you  will  come  with  me  to  Morris  I  will  tell 
you  all  about  it  and  give  you  a  chance  to  get  back 
the  two  dollars  you  have  bet  on  some  other  horse." 

Scotty  smiled  with  a  smile  that  resembled  a  sun- 
beam on  a  tombstone,  and  Cowen  grimly  remarked : 
"You  are  getting  pretty  wise  for  a  new  boob."  Then 
they  departed. 

Mr.  Eveling  was  anxious  to  meet  a  gentleman 
who  would  help  him  to  make  some  sure  money,  and 
I  introduced  him  to  Morris.  After  a  brief  conversa- 
tion and  explanation  of  the  situation  as  stated  by 
Morris,  Eveling  entrusted  Morris  with  all  the  money 
.he  had,  which  was  two  hundred  dollars. 


The  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  55 

The  odds  on  the  fixed  horse  were  twelve  to  one. 
Morris  explained  that  he  would  have  to  bet  one  hun- 
dred dollars  for  the  jockeys  who  were  to  do  the  fix- 
ing" by  holding  back  the  other  horses,  and  the  twelve 
hundred  dollars  that  would  be  made  by  betting  the 
other  one  hundred,  were  to  be  divided  between 
Eveling  and  Morris.  To  this  honest  arrangement  of 
bribing  jockeys  and  swindling  a  bookmaker  Eveling 
agreed  with  cheerful  and  unconscious  alacrity. 

Morris  and  I  proceeded  to  the  betting  ring,  leav- 
ing Eveling  to  await  our  return.  On  the  way  Mor- 
ris handed  me  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  saying 
"Here  are  fifty  dollars  for  your  half  of  the  hundred 
that  is  supposed  to  be  bet  for  the  jockey.  You  bet 
the  other  hundred  on  the  horse  I  name  and  take  the 
ticket  to  Eveling.  If  the  horse  wins  we  will  have 
three  hundred  more  each.  If  the  horse  loses  we  will 
have  fifty  each  anyhow  and  Eveling  will  have  the 
experience,  and  you  can  drop  him  and  hustle  around 
to  find  another  friend  whom  we  can  sting." 

"Why  not  bet  the  hundred  instead  of  dividing  it 
and  make  twelve  hundred  for  ourselves?"  said  I. 

"You  gosling  idiot,"  said  Morris,  "Can't  you  see 
that  the  only  safe  way  to  play  this  game  is  to  always 
make  sure  of  a  little  money  and  have  a  chance  to 
make  a  good  deal?" 

Eveling's  horse  did  not  reach  within  whinnying 
distance  of  the  goal.  I  had  no  sympathy  for  him, 
for  he  had  willingly  engaged  in  what  he  believed  to 


56  Easy  Money. 

be   a   swindling  transaction   in  the   expectation  of 
great  profit. 

I  started  on  a  still  hunt  for  another  "friend."  Dur- 
ing the  afternoon  I  captured  three,  out  of  whom 
Morris  and  I  made  four  hundred  and  eighty  dollars 
and  Morris  did  not  guess  the  winner  a  single  time. 
Whether  the  three  "friends"  whom  I  helped  to  rob 
would  ever  have  been  worth  four  hundred  and 
eighty  dollars  to  me  in  any  legitimate  way  is  a  mat- 
ter of  doubt.  Probably  not,  for  they  were  them- 
selves incipient  crooks  or  they  never  would  have 
embarked,  as  they  supposed,  in  the  business  of  brib- 
ing jockeys  to  throw  a  race.  I  can  look  back  now  on 
the  whole  miserable  treacherous  business  with  dis- 
gust at  myself;  but  at  the  time  my  conscience  was 
completely  ossified. 

Just  before  the  close  of  the  races  this  day,  Morris 
shook  me  by  the  hand  and  said :  "You  are  all  right, 
kid,  if  you  just  don't  weaken.  Meet  me  down  town, 
I  want  to  introduce  you  to  Dutch  Fred  Cook  tonight. 
He  has  a  man  that  I  think  we  can  trim." 

Agreeing  to  meet  him,  I  left  him  to  go  home. 

During  the  supper  my  father  and  sister,  as  usual, 
upbraided  me  for  gambling.  My  mother,  taking  my 
part,  said  that  I  was  young  and  would  perhaps  be 
through  sowing  my  wild  oats  in  a  short  time,  and 
she  would  not  stand  for  my  being  abused. 

I  hastened  down  town  after  supper  to  meet  Mor- 
ris, who  introduced  me  to  Dutch  Fred  Cook,  a  big, 
raw-boned,   ignorant   Dutchman,   with   a   hang-dog 


I'he  Gambling  Germ  Grows.  57 

expression  on  his  face,  who  said :  "I  have  a  man 
that  I  can't  handle.  I  will  turn  him  over  to  you  and 
Morris,  but  I  must  be  in,  too.  I  want  thirty-three 
per  cent,  for  my  bit." 

Morris  and  I  agreed  to  this. 

The  next  morning  we  met  Cook's  man  and  got  six 
hundred  dollars  from  him,  of  which  Cook  received 
two  hundred. 

Cook  in  after  years  became  quite  a  noted  charac- 
ter on  the  turf,  owning  a  number-one  stable  of  race 
horses,  becoming  a  big  bookmaker  and  gambling 
with  the  best  of  it,  skinning  the  public  at  every  op- 
portunity. But  he  was  not  satisfied  with  this,  he 
wanted  to  control  the  racing  situation.  He  tried  it 
and  commenced  to  take  chances  with  his  money  in 
investments,  and  he  is  now  practically  penniless. 

My  partnership  with  Morris  aroused  and  devel- 
oped in  me  qualities  of  energy,  cunning,  patience  and 
persistence. 

As  a  crooked  professional  gambler  it  was  my  bus- 
iness to  skin  the  unwary,  to  fleece  my  fellowmen 
and  to  double  cross  my  friends;  and  it  became  sec- 
ond nature  with  me  to  always  be  on  the  alert  and 
to  look  for  some  individual  weaker  than  myself, 
whose  friendship  and  confidence  I  might  obtain  as 
a  preliminary  to  trimming  him.  It  did  not  lessen, 
but  rather  increased  the  moral  turpitude  of  my  ac- 
tions, that,  in  order  to  succeed  with  my  victim,  I 
was  obliged  to  encourage  and  develop  his  inherent 
inclinations  toward  rascality. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

GRAFTER  AND  GAMBLER— VARIED  EXPE- 
RIENCES. 

During  my  twenty-one  years'  experience  in  gam- 
bling, from  1888  until  October,  1909,  I  traveled  the 
world  over.  I  have  been  in  every  important  city  in- 
the  United  States,  from  coast  to  coast  and  from 
Canada  to  Mexico.  I  have  booked  or  gambled  on 
every  large  race  track  in  the  United  States,  and  on 
many  of  the  smaller  ones.  I  have  gambled  on  the 
Mississippi  River  from  St.  Louis  to  New  Orleans 
and  from  New  Orleans  to  the  Jetties.  I  say  "gam- 
bled." It  really  was  not  gambling,  it  was  sure-thing 
grafting. 

I  have  always  endeavored  to  spend  my  summers 
in  the  North  or  East  and  my  winters  in  the  South 
or  West.  In  a  good  many  cities,  where  there  were 
no  race  tracks,  I  would  gamble  at  cards,  dice  and 
various  other  games.  But  my  preference  has  al- 
ways been  for  race-track  gambling  and  grafting,  as 
there  is  always  more  money  to  be  obtained  from  the 
visitors  at  a  race  track. 

I  have  landed  in  New  Orleans  broke,  andj.left  that 
city  with  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars.  I 
have  landed  in  San  Francisco  with  one  hundred 
thousand  dollars  and  left  there  broke.  I  have 
landed  in  New  York  on  several  occasions  broke  and 

58 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  59 

left  with  a  lot  of  money.  I  have  affiliated  and  gam- 
bled and  met  in  my  career  most  of  the  notorious 
gamblers  of  the  world,  or  to  speak  more  accurately, 
the  grafters  of  the  world.  A  real  gambler  is  a  man 
who  gives  a  chance  as  well  as  takes  one,  but  most 
gamblers  will  not  play  fairly  with  anybody,  but  will 
seek  to  cheat,  first  their  victims  and  afterwards  their 
associates. 

The  only  sporting  man  whom  in  twenty-one 
years  of  experience  as  a  gambler  I  have  known  to 
be  absolutely  fair  is  James  L.  Holland  of  Albany, 
president  of  the  Santa  Anita  race  track,  Los  An- 
geles. He  has  staked  hundreds  of  broken  gamblers, 
sports  and  grafters,  and  has  always  refused  to  par- 
ticipate in  any  double-crossing  or  cheating  methods. 
He  was  the  only  race-track  president  with  deter- 
mination enough  to  say :  ''I  will  not  gamble  in  de- 
fiance of  the  law,"  after  the  anti-gambling  law  was 
enacted  in  California.  It  is  a  very  broad  assertion 
to  state  that  he  is  the  only  sporting  man  in  all  my 
checkered  career  whom  I  have  found  to  be  abso- 
lutely on  the  level  in  his  dealings  with  mankind,  but 
such  is  the  fact. 

The  notorious  race  track  gamblers,  such  as  Tom 
Williams,  John  Condon,  George  Rose,  Louis  Cella, 
Sam  Toiler  and  "Cap."  Tillis  are  always  looking  for 
a  shade  the  best  of  it,  and  will  obtain  that  shade  or 
will  not  deal. 

I  have  visited  many  foreign  countries,  including 
England,  France,  Germany  and  Mexico,  and  have 


60  Easy  Money. 

gambled  at  their  various  games,  sometimes  with 
success,  but  more  often  with  loss. 

The  easiest  picking  that  I  have  found  in  my  jour- 
neys around  the  world  was  in  New  York  City  and 
in  Chicago.  Bankers,  doctors  and  lawyers  are  cur- 
iously enough  classed  by  gamblers  as  "soft  snaps." 
This  is  probably  because  their  minds  are  occupied 
constantly  in  their  own  lines  of  business,  and  they 
do  not  keep  up  with  the  ways  of  the  under  world. 
They  are  like  unsophisticated  school  children,  par- 
ticularly if  they  have  the  greed  germ  in  their  sys- 
tems. I  am  sorry  to  say  that  some  bankers,  who 
are  supposed  to  protect  the  poor  widow  and  or- 
phans, bankers  who  advertise  that  they  cannot  pay 
more  than  four  per  cent,  for  money  and  will  loan 
on  good  security  at  eight  per  cent.,  will,  when  ap- 
proached by  a  grafter  or  a  gambler  and  shown  a 
way  to  make  one  hundred  per  cent,  illicitly,  eagerly 
seize  the  supposed  opportunity.  It  is  like  taking  a 
stick  of  candy  away  from  a  little  child  by  promising 
him  ten  sticks  in  exchange,  when  you  approach  a 
banker  with  a  sure-thing  proposition. 

Morris  and  I,  finding  ourselves  unable  to  entrap 
the  man  whom  Fred  Cook  designated  as  a  victim, 
concluded  to  transfer  our  scene  of  operations  to  Cin- 
cinnati. On  our  arrival  there  we  registered  at  the 
Gibson  House,  where  we  mingled  with  people  who 
gave  surface  indications  of  possessing  combinations 
of  such  rascality  and  asininity  as  were  essential  for 
our  purpose. 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  61 

Our  first  victim  was  the  cashier  of  the  Gibson 
House.  I  explained  to  him  the  modus  operandi  of 
beating  the  bookmakers.  I  told  him  how  easy  it 
was,  when  three  horses  were  entered,  to  bribe  the 
jockeys  of  two  of  them  to  let  the  slowest  nag  win. 
I  dangled  the  bait  of  successful  rascality  before  his 
gaping  mouth,  and  he  swallowed  it.  We  relieved 
him  of  one  thousand  dollars,  and  he  lost  three  thou- 
sand more  in  the  pool-rooms. 

How  much  of  it  was  his  own  money,  and  how 
much  of  it  belonged  to  the  hotel  company,  I  did  not 
inquire. 

Mr.  Morris  and  I  did  not  remain  at  the  Gibson 
House,  because  the  general  manager,  Mr.  Horace 
Dunbar,  earnestly  requested  a  cessation  of  our  pat- 
ronage as  guests,  and  Morris  went  to  the  Palace 
Hotel  and  I  to  the  Guerdes  Hotel.  There  I  posed 
as  a  wealthy  young  gentleman  of  sporting  tenden- 
cies, and,  as  such,  was  introduced  into  a  poker  game. 
In  two  nights  I  was  fleeced  of  three  hundred  dol- 
lars. 

Then  I  proposed  to  pass  from  the  noble  army  of 
martyrs  and  join  those  who  inflict  martyrdom.  Mor- 
ris at  once  became  my  guide  and  introduced  me  to 
old  Joe  Blackburn — not  the  brilliant  Kentucky  ex- 
senator  of  that  name,  nor  yet  his  cousin  or  other 
relative — who  instructed  me  in  the  tricks  of  the 
great  American  game,  and  coached  me  to  play 
as  his  partner.  He  was  the  shrewdest  and  most 
artistic  card  sharper  between  the  Alleghanies  and 


62  Easy  Money. 

the  Rockies.  He  could  deal  from  the  bottom  of 
the  pack  and  "hold  out"  without  detection. 

I  introduced  Joe  to  the  game  wherein  I  had 
dropped  three  hundred  dollars.  I  do  not  know  what 
he  did  with  the  cards ;  I  bet  high,  according  to 
previous  direction,^  whenever  old  Joe  dealt  the 
cards,  and,  as  a  result,  Joe  and  I,  in  three  sittings, 
took  four  thousand  dollars  from  the  other  players. 
I  did  not  swindle  anybody,  I  bet  all  I  could  when 
I  had  a  good  hand,  and  I  always  had  the  best  hand 
when  Joe  dealt,  which  I  thought  then  was  only 
good  luck ;  yet,  because  of  it  I  was  wrongfully  ac- 
cused by  the  hotel  manager  of  being  a  "fixer  and 
a  cheater,"  and  he  quietly  but  firmly  requested  me 
to  vacate  my  room. 

The  atmosphere  about  Cincinnati  became  so  un- 
duly charged  with  unfriendly  caloric  that  Morris 
and  I  concluded  to  return  to  Chicago  and  play  the 
game  at  the  Roby  race  track  there. 

While  en  route  to  the  windy  city  we  picked  up 
a  contributor  on  the  train,  and  the  next  day  the 
gentleman  gave  me  three  hundred  dollars  to  bet  on 
a  fixed  horse.  I  went  down  to  the  betting  ring  and 
did  not  return  until  after  the  horse  on  which  I  was 
supposed  to  bet  had  run  and  lost.  If  the  horse  had 
won  I  would  have  told  my  victim,  as  I  handed  him 
back  his  money,  that  I  did  not  reach  the  betting 
ring  in  time  to  make  a  bet.  But  as  the  horse  lost  I 
had  only  to  pocket  the  money  and  tell  him  we  must 
hope  for  better  luck  the  next  time. 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  63 

It  was  a  totally  unnecessary  steal,  for  Morris 
and  I  had  about  five  thousand  dollars  between  us. 

We  concluded  that  we  would  cease  fishing  f-sr 
small  fry  and  try  and  beat  the  bookmakers  them.- 
selves.  We  bet  not  only  on  the  races  being  run  ai 
Rob}^  but  on  those  at  other  tracks  as  well.  V\^e 
undertook  to  beat  twenty-four  races  in  one  day  and 
at  first  were  successful. 

On  the  second  day  Morris  and  I  had  a  little  ar- 
gument about  a  wager.  Thinking  that  I  was  about 
as  wise  as  he  I  concluded  to  paddle  my  own  canoe. 
This  I  did  with  some  success  for  two  days,  but  the 
third  day  a  whirlpool  in  the  stream  twisted  the 
paddle  from  my  grasp  and  landed  me  forked  end 
upwards  on  a  rocky  bank.  Charley  Cash,  who  on 
account  of  his  habit  of  expectoration  was  commonly 
known  as  "Spitting  Charley,"  was  the  instrument 
of  my  financial  downfall.  He  saw  me  in  the  betting 
ring,  and  in  the  slang  of  the  turf,  he  "spotted  me 
for  a  sucker."  He  became  confidential.  He  grew 
warm  with  friendship.  He  led  me  to  bet  on  fixed 
horses  whose  fixing  was  only  in  his  affluent  im- 
agination. He  caused  me  to  "go  broke,"  for  which 
act  of  friendship  I  consigned  him  at  the  time  to  the 
close  custody  of  the  Enemy  of  Mankind. 

But  I  forgive  him  now,  for,  controlled  as  I  was 
by  ignorance  and  conceit,  I  would  have  descended 
into  the  pit  of  insolvency  anyhow. 

Aside  from  the  physical  consequences  of  a  con- 
dition of  -mpecuniosity,  it  is  to  be  avoided  because 


64  Easy  Money. 

of  its  demoralizing-  effect  on  one's  mentality,  and 
morality,  if  he  has  any.  Somebody  has  wisely  said 
that  "poverty  makes  our  souls  lean  as  well  as  our 
bodies."  I  have  learned  to  know  that  "money 
talks,"  and  as  an  expert  witness  I  can  testify  that 
it  speaks  in  its  saddest  and  loudest  tones  when  you 
see  the  horse  on  which  you  have  bet  come  under 
the  wire  loser,  and  you  hear  your  coin  singing, 
"good-bye,  my  lover,  good-bye." 

Morris  had  also,  about  this  time,  met  his  financial 
downfall,  and,  with  our  tempers  sweetened  by  ad- 
versity, we  made  up  our  differences.  We  organized 
the  "Touters'  Trust,  Limited"  (by  opportunities 
only),  and  agreed  to  return  to  our  former  business 
of  luring  adolescent  youths  and  guileless  gray- 
beards  of  conscienceless  instincts  and  sportive  pro- 
clivities into  the  business  of  betting  on  "fixed 
horses,"  and  "sure  things." 

We  had  no  money,  but  Morris  had  a  valuable 
watch.  He  sighed  "tempus  fugit,"  as  he  deposited 
it  with  his  uncle,  and  we  traveled  to  St.  Louis  on 
the  proceeds.  There  I  looked  up  another  friend 
and  gave  him  a  "pointer"  on  the  races,  out  of  which 
we  made  and  he  lost  five  hundred  dollars. 

My  dear  reader,  T  am  going  to  give  you  a  little 
advice.  If  you  feel  that  you  must  illustrate  the 
proverb  that  "a  fool  and  his  money  are  soon  parted," 
I  will  tell  you  how  to  get  rid  of  your  surplus  cash. 
Take  from  the  racing  calendar  for  the  day  the  names 
of  all  the  horses  in  all  the  races.    Write  them  all  on 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  65 

separate  slips  of  paper,  put  these  in  a  hat  and  shake 
them  up.  Draw  one  and  bet  on  that  one.  You  will 
lose  your  bet  of  course,  but  you  will  have  had  some 
slight  chance  to  win,  and  that  you  will  not  have  by 
listening  to  and  following  the  advice  of  a  tout. 

If  you  visit  the  race  track  and  one  of  the  fraterni- 
ty offers  to  give  you  a  tip  for  a  consideration,  you 
give  him  a  tip  without  any  consideration.  Give  it 
to  him  on  his  nose,  and  if  the  flexors  and  extensors 
of  your  right  leg  are  in  good  condition,  kick  him. 
He  will  not  complain.  He  desires  no  police  court 
publicity  as  a  complaining  witness. 

With  the  five  hundred  dollars  of  easy  money  ob- 
tained at  St.  Louis  we  went  to  New  York.  There 
I  pursued  the  honest  industry  of  making  acquaint- 
ances, whom  I  introduced  to  Morris,  who  proceeded 
to  minister  unto  them. 

From  New  York  we  went  to  Washington,  D.  C, 
where  we  lost  our  money  in  crap  and  keno  games. 

Why  will  men  leave  a  legitimate  and  profitable 
business  such  as  advising  their  "friends"  how  to 
bet  on  the  races,  and  then  venture  their  hard  earn- 
ings on  so-called  games  of  chance  from  which  the 
element  of  chance  has  been  eliminated  by  the  dealer? 

Washington  proved  a  barren  field.  There  were 
senatorial  poker  games  in  that  city,  but  we  could 
not  get  into  them.  We  could  have  gained  access 
to  games  played  by  department  clerks,  but  there 
were  no  gleanings  in  a  game  played  by  gentlemen 

(5) 


66  Easy  Money. 

who  on  eighteen  hundred  dollars  a  year  supported 
families  guiltless  of  race  suicide. 

So  we  went  to  New  Orleans,  where  we  operated 
for  two  months  in  the  pool-rooms  with  varying  suc- 
cess, but  finally  emerged  "on  our  uppers"  as  the 
slang-whangers   say. 

In  the  Spring  we  went  to  Hot  Springs,  Arkan- 
sas. There  ]\Iorris  and  I  again  differed  and  sepa- 
rated, and  I  became  an  associate  and  partner  of 
Lawrence  Varner,  known  as  the  "Harmony  Kid,"  a 
notorious  dice  and  card  sharp. 

Varner  initiated  me  into  the  various  cheating 
methods  in  dice  and  cards,  and  we  operated  around 
Hot  Springs  quite  a  little  while,  being  fairly  suc- 
cessful. 

Going  from  Hot  Springs  to  Little  Rock,  and  then 
to  St.  Louis  and  Kansas  City,  Varner  and  I  quar- 
reled and  divided  on  account  of  his  retaining  my 
share  of  a  bank-roll  of  which  we  divested  a  green- 
horn one  night  in  the  Blosson  House  in  Kansas  City. 

I  went  back  to  St.  Louis  and  resumed  partner- 
ship with  Morris,  he  and  I  going  over  to  Cincinnati, 
where  we  found  Llewellyn  Hatch,  commonly  known 
as  "Hot  Lamb  and  Peas  Hatch,"  who  was  trying  to 
promote  a  night  race  track,  to  be  called  Milldale, 
opposite  Cincinnati.  Hatch  had  had  an  eventful  ca- 
reer; nobody  had  confidence  in  him.  He  was  look- 
ing around  for  some  one  to  use  as  a  bluffer,  when  I 
was  introduced  to  him  by  Morris.  Hatch  immedi- 
ately called  Morris  off  to  one  side  and  asked  him 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  67 

whether  I  could  fill  the  bill  as  a  supposed  backer 
of  his  enterprise.     Morris  said  I  certainly  could. 

At  that  time  I  was  dressed  in  the  height  of  fashion, 
having  a  diamond  pin  and  ring,  with  the  usual 
pufifed-up  vanity  of  a  youth  with  a  face  like  a  saint. 
The  proposition  of  Hatch  was  that  I  should 
pose  as  the  moneyed  man  who  was  behind  his  race- 
track venture.  I  agreed  immediately  to  his  pro- 
posal, with  the  understanding  that  Hatch,  Morris 
and  I  were  to  divide  the  spoils  equally. 

Hatch  introduced  me  to  a  banker  and  a  liquor 
dealer  of  Covington,  stating  that  I  was  ready  to  put 
up  twenty  thousand  dollars  in  the  enterprise,  pro- 
viding they  would  guarantee  protection  for  the  night 
track.  It  did  not  take  long  for  the  banker  and  li- 
quor man,  who  were  politicians  at  the  time  in  Cov- 
ington, to  agree  to  protect  us,  when  we  assured 
them  that  they  would  receive  one  hundred  dollars 
each  per  night  for  this  protection. 

Hatch  took  me  to  his  contractors  who  were 
building  the  track  and  had  me  assume  the  debts ; 
in  other  words,  I  agreed  to  pay  any  old  price  for 
any  old  thing,  to  get  the  track  started. 

I  engaged  the  Covington  band,  and  made  a  con- 
tract with  the  street  car  company  to  run  special 
cars  to  the  track.  We  finally  opened  the  biggest 
burlesque  that  was  ever  put  before  the  public,  ad- 
vertising four  races. 

Our  bank  roll  consisted  on  the  opening  night  of 
one   hundred    and    eighty   dollars,    thirty    of    which 


68 


Easy  Money. 


were  in  a  bank,  Morris  was  the  bookmaker.  We 
put  four  books  in  operation  and  the  prices  were 
something  terrific. 


Race  Track  Judge  Protecting  the  Public. 

On  the  opening  night  we  had  probably  two  thou- 
sand people,  the  admission  was  free,  and  the  books 
won  about  five  hundred  dollars.     But,  not  wanting 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  69 

to  let  the  money  slip  out  of  our  hands,  we  concluded 
to  pay  the  horsemen  off  in  checks  the  next  evening, 
so  that  when  they  tried  to  get  these  checks  cashed 
they  would  be  forced  to  bet  them  with  the  books, 
or  at  least  part  of  them. 

On  the  second  night  there  was  a  very  heavy 
plunge  on  a  horse  named  "His  Nibs,"  and  the 
books  stood  to  lose  three  thousand  dollars.  Hatch 
had  secured  a  one-armed  man  by  the  name  of  Craw- 
ford, of  Quincy,  Illinois,  to  act  as  judge ;  Hatch 
himself  being  the  starter. 

Just  before  the  horses  went  to  post  Morris  told 
me  that  if  "His  Nibs"  won  the  race  he  could  not  pay 
off,  and  to  inform  Hatch.  I  gave  the  message  to 
Hatch  before  he  went  to  the  starting  post,  and  told 
him  if  "His  Nibs"  won  the  race  we  would  have  to 
welch.  Hatch  agreed  to  leave  "His  Nibs"  at  the 
post. 

I  went  back  and  told  Morris  of  this,  and  he  took 
all  the  money  in  sight  on  the  horse. 

In  a  few  moments  they  were  off,  and  "His  Nibs" 
was  left  at  the  post.  But  all  the  jockeys  in  the  race 
had  bet  on  this  horse,  and  when  they  saw  that  he 
was  left  at  the  post  they,  with  one  accord,  com- 
menced to  pull  up  their  horses,  giving  "His  Nibs" 
an  opportunity  to  catch  up  with  the  field,  with  the 
result  that  he  won  the  race  by  about  six  lengths. 

I  went  into  the  judges'  stand  and  told  Judge  Craw- 
ford that  he  would  have  to  disqualify  "His  Nibs," 
or  the  meeting  would  have  to  end,  as  we  couldn't 


70  Easy  Money. 

pay  off.  Crawford  proved  dead  game,  and,  in  the 
face  of  a  howling  mob  that  had  bet  on  "His  Nibs," 
disqualified  the  horse  for  interfering  with  another 
horse  in  the  race,  which  was  not  the  fact. 

This  was,  luckily,  the  last  race  of  the  night.  It 
was  probably  owing  to  this  that  Crawford's  life  was 
saved,  as  the  mob  was  very  angry,  and  justly  so. 

Morris,  as  soon  as  the  disqualification  was  posted, 
immediately  took  to  the  high  brush.  The  mob 
wrecked  the  judges'  stand  and  the  grand  stand,  and 
that  was  the  last  night  of  electric-light  racing  at 
the  Milldale  race  track. 

I  crossed  to  Cincinnati  as  soon  as  I  could,  and 
took  an  inventory  of  what  we  had  taken  in,  and 
found  that  we  had  about  twenty-eight  hundred  dol- 
lars between  the  three  of  us.  We  sent  Hatch  his 
part,  and  Morris  and  I  concluded  that  the  atmo- 
sphere would  be  much  more  salubrious  elsewhere, 
and  consequently  we  left  Cincinnati  at  midnight.  I 
went  to  St.  Louis,  where  I  opened  a  pool-room  in 
Pool  Alley,  next  to  the  engine  house  on  Seventh 
Street,  and  commenced  to  make  a  twenty-five  and 
fifty-cent  book,  catering  to  the  lowest  class  of  bet- 
tors, and  renting  out  booths  in  my  pool-room  for 
other  pool-makers  at  five  dollars  per  day. 

My  place  was  shortly  afterwards  closed  by  the 
police ;  partly  in  deference  to  public  opinion  and 
partly  because  I  declined  to  pay  for  protection. 

I  then  affiliated  with  a  couple  of  telegraph  opera- 
tors who  were  reducing  the  profits  of  the  pool-rooms 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  71 

in  St.  Louis,  and  they  used  me  as  betting  commis- 
sioner. 

About  this  time  Horace  Argo,  Coley  Ullman, 
Barney  Schriber  and  other  notorious  gamblers; 
were  conducting  a  string  of  pool-rooms  on  Fourth 
Street,  opposite  the  old  Planters'  House.  We  took 
from  these  rooms  much  of  their  ill-gotten  gains  by 
obtaining  advance  information  of  the  San  Francisco 
races  over  the  Postal  Telegraph  Company's  direct 
wire  from  San  Francisco,  beating  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company  from  three  to  five  min- 
utes. We  were  only  able  to  work  our  scheme  a  few 
days,  when  the  pool-room  owners  discovered  that 
they  were  being  skinned,  which  necessitated  our 
ceasing  operations. 

By  our  trick  we  took  several  thousand  dollars 
from  the  pool-rooms.  It  was  a  case  where  the  sec- 
ond thief  was  the  better  owner. 

I  then  went  to  Chicago  with  the  same  two  opera- 
tors, and  was  introduced  to  William  McNutt,  who 
was  impecunious  at  the  time.  He  made  the  propo- 
sition to  us  that  he  and  old  man  Stone  would  "cut 
in"  on  the  main  pool-room  wire  at  South  Chicago, 
providing  I  would  bet  the  money  and  divide  it  with 
them,  which  I  agreed  to  do. 

McNutt  introduced  me  to  Gussie  McKee,  who  was 
operating  quite  extensively  as  a  bettor  in  a  woman's 
pool-room  in  Chicago.  McNutt  asked  me  to  let 
Miss  McKee  in  on  the  game,  to  which  my  asso- 
ciates and  I  agreed. 


72  Easy  Money. 

McNutt  and  Stone  "cut  in"  on  the  wire,  as 
planned,  and  we  divested  the  Chicago  pool-rooms 
out  of  quite  a  lot  of  money;  especially  did  we  plun- 
der O'Leary  and  McGinnis,  who  were  running  at 
this  time  on  Clark  Street,  between  Van  Buren 
Street  and  Jackson  Boulevard.  But,  as  usual  in 
many  such  cases,  prosperity  killed  the  goose  that 
laid  the  golden  egg.  One  of  the  telegraph  operators 
talked  too  much,  and  the  next  day  we  could  not  get 
a  bet. 

I  do  not  think  there  is  living  today  any  man  who 
can  beat  old  man  Stone  or  William  McNutt  when 
it  comes  to  tapping  a  wire  and  beating  the  pool- 
rooms at  their  own  game.  They  are  both  straight 
fellows  now,  and  are  engaged  in  legitimate  business. 

At  that  time  I  had  quite  a  bank  roll.  Going  back 
to  St.  Louis  I  commenced  gambling  around  the  East 
St.  Louis,  Madison  and  South  St.  Louis  race  tracks.- 
One  of  my  experiences  there  was  extremely  amus- 
ing. I  had  lost  quite  a  good  deal  of  money,  when 
Dick  Hanlon,  a  tout,  suggested  to  me  that  we  run 
a  ringer,  which  I  readily  agreed  to.  Anything  to 
get  the  money !  Hanlon  took  me  over  to  the  Fair 
Grounds,  introduced  me  to  a  trainer  by  the  name 
of  Arthur  Hewlett,  who  agreed  to  run  a  ringer  at 
the  South  Side  Race  Track  for  me,  providing  I 
would  bet  five  hundred  dollars  for  him,  which  I 
readily  agreed  to  do. 

It  was  agreed  to  run  a  very  fast  horse  the  next 
day  as  a  ringer  in  the  place  of  "Tom  Tough,"  regu- 


'  .  Grafter  and  Gambler.  73 

larly  entered  in  the  race.  I  gave  Dick  Hanlon  five 
hundred  dollars  to  bet  for  himself.  Hewlett  and  I 
bet  five  hundred  dollars  at  four  to  one.  But  alas, 
our  ringer  lost,  and  I  was  the  victim  that  was 
skinned !  They  had  only  given  me  a  guess  for  my 
money  and  had  not  run  a  ringer  at  all. 

I  then  changed  my  operations  to  Sportsmen  Park 
Race  Track.  That  track  was  owned  and  operated 
by  Chris  Von  der  Ahe,  who  was  also  president 
and  owner  of  the  St.  Louis  Browns,  the  four- 
time  champion  base-ball  team.  Von  der  Ahe  lost 
his  entire  fortune,  including  his  interest  in  the  St. 
Louis  Browns,  in  this  race  track  venture. 

Dan  Donley  and  John  Ryan  had  the  betting  priv- 
ilege at  this  track,  and  they  were  dealing  a  fierce 
game.  My  first  attempt  to  beat  them  was  success- 
ful. I  afterward  went  to  Ryan  with  the  statement 
that  I  could  control  a  jockey  by  the  name  of  Harry 
Davis,  and  that  he  would  pull  all  his  mounts  for  me 
whenever  I  wanted  him  to  do  so.  Ryan  and  Donley 
agreed  to  divide  the  profits  with  me  on  any  race 
where  Davis  rode  the  favorite. 

To  make  things  look  good  to  Ryan  I  deposited 
with  him  one  hundred  dollars,  and  told  him  to  place 
the  money  against  the  favorite  that  Davis  was  to 
ride.  When  the  betting  opened  in  the  race  I  tipped 
a  number  of  friends  to  bet  on  the  favorite,  and  they 
put  their  money  on  him  freely,  Ryan  boosting  the 
odds  all  the  time,  thinking  that  this  favorite  would 
be  pulled  to  lose.    But  I  proceeded  quietly,  through 


74  Easy  Money. 

agents,  to  place  my  money  on  this  favorite.  The 
favorite  won  the  race,  I  succeeded  in  obtaining  an 
average  price  of  three  to  one  against  a  horse  that 
should  have  one  to  two.  Thus  I  double-crossed 
Ryan,  and  beat  him  at  his  game. 

For  this  I  was  ruled  off  the  track  and  was  not  per- 
mitted to  enter  it  for  three  days,  when  I  succeeded 
in  having  a  political  friend  secure  my  reinstate- 
ment. 

I  then  started  to  knock  around  the  country  from 
pillar  to  post,  experiencing  the  ups  and  downs  of 
life,  existing  on  turkey  one  day  and  feathers  the 
next,  until  finally  I  found  myself,  1899,  in  New  Or- 
leans and  broke. 

I  commenced  to  hustle  around  the  pool-rooms, 
and  managed  to  get  hold  of  a  little  money  with 
which  I  began  operating  among  the  steeple-chase 
jockeys,  and  framed  up  a  few  "sure  things." 

I  operated  also  at  Memphis  until  I  had  accumu- 
lated about  fifteen  thousand  dollars. 

I  then  bought  a  few  horses,  and,  going  east,  at- 
tempted, during  the  summer,  to  show  the  eastern 
bookmakers  what  a  smart,  western  hustler  could 
do.  It  did  not  take  the  eastern  "dummies,"  as  I  con- 
sidered the  race-track  gamblers  there,  long  to  trim 
"Mr.  Smarty"  from  the  west.  I  was  down  and  out 
and  broke  in  short  order,  and  it  was  coffee  and 
sinkers,  arguments  with  my  landlady  and  hustling 
for  my  laundry  money  during  that  summer. 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  75 

Along  in  the  Fall  1  concluded  to  try  the  southern 
field,  going  first  to  Atlanta,  and  afterwards  to 
Macon  and  Augusta,  with  the  usual  ups  and  downs, 
ins  and  outs. 

I  then  drifted  to  New  Orleans,  where  I  doubled 
up  with  Ed.  Arnold.  We  hustled  around  New  Or- 
leans together,  and  succeeded  in  lining  up  a  few 
suckers  to  handle  at  the  race  track,  where  we  gave 
them  a  fixed  race  one  day,  and  were  compelled  to 
leave  New  Orleans  on  a  freight  train  that  night  to 
escape  a  good  drubbing.  Arnold  and  I  took  an 
Illinois  Central  (Palace)  box  car,  arriving  at  Brook- 
haven,  Mississippi,  just  beyond  the  Louisiana  state 
line,  about  four  o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  there 
awaited  the  Illinois  Central  passenger  train,  which 
took  us  to  Memphis. 

From  Memphis  we  went  to  Hot  Springs,  and 
from  Hot  Springs  to  Chicago,  where,  under  the 
name  of  "E.  J.  Arnold  &  Company,"  we  started  the 
notorious  get-rich-quick  proposition  along  race 
horse  lines. 

We  soon  moved  to  St.  Louis.  We  could  not  agree 
as  to  our  partnership  matters  and  separated. 

I  went  to  Buffalo  to  do  the  people  attending  the 
Pan-American  Exposition.  I  opened  up  five  rail- 
road-ticket brokers'  or  scalpers'  offices  in  Exchange 
Street,  which  were  only  a  blind.  In  the  rear  of  each 
of  these  ticket  ofitices  I  had  a  gambling  joint,  and 
there  ran  a  shell  game,  a  sure-thing  crap  game  and 
various  other  gambling  games,  all  intended  to  trim 


76  Easy  Money. 

the  suckers.  I  had  cappers  or  runners  out  working 
trains  and  steering-  people  to  my  ticket  offices,  sup- 
posedly, but  in  reality  to  my  gambling  dens.  I  was 
doing  business  with  "Buffalo  Murphy^"  who  was 
giving  me  protection  from  police  interference,  and 
also  with  one  or  two  politicians  of  Buffalo.  I 
cleaned  up  over  sixty  thousand  dollars  during  the 
Pan-American  season,  after  paying  the  cappers  and 
runners  fifty  per  cent,  of  all  the  business  they 
steered  into  me,  and  paying  well  for  the  protection 
that  was  given  me. 

About  this  time  E.  J.  Arnold  was  in  pretty  sore 
financial  straits  in  St.  Louis.  On  several  occasions 
I  sent  him  money  enough  to  pay  his  dividends. 

Soon  after  the  Pan-American  Exposition  I  went 
to  New  Orleans,  and  there  cleaned  up,  during  the 
winter  of  1901-1902  approximately  one  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  playing  the  races,  or  rather 
fixing  races. 

I  then  returned  to  St.  Louis,  was  initiated  into  the 
mysteries  of  the  stock  exchange,  and  attempted  to 
corner  the  corn  market  with  my  insignificant  sum 
of  money.    As  a  result  I  "went  broke"  like  a  flash. 

In  May  of  1902  I  went  to  Chicago,  obtained  back- 
ing and  opened  up  "H.  Brolaski  &  Company,"  co- 
operative bookmakers. 

I  operated  with  great  success  for  the  first  three  or 
four  months,  and  at  one  time  had  over  five  hundred 
thousand  dollars.  But  on  Friday,  the  thirteenth 
day  of  February,  1903  (mark  the  combination),  H. 


I* 


78  Easy  Money. 

Brolaski  &  Company  was  closed,  and  I  concluded 
that  a  trip  to  Europe  would  benefit  my  health.  I 
sailed  from  New  York  on  the  steamer  Etsuria  of 
the  Cunard  line,  taking  with  me  my  old  friend 
Morris,  who  had  started  me  in  the  business  of  gam- 
bling and  grafting. 

.  Arriving  in  Liverpool  we  spent  a  day  seeing  the 
grand  international  steeple-chase  race.  We  then 
went  to  London,  which  city  we  did  to  a  frazzle;  then 
to  Paris,  where  I  spent  some  little  time,  then  back 
to  London  and  then  returned  to  dear  old  United 
States. 

On  my  arrival  at  New  York  I  was  broken  in 
health  and  pocketbook,  and  was  taken  quite  sick 
there,  which  necessitated  an  operation.  Having 
confidence  in  only  one  physician,  Dr.  William  Har- 
vey of  Chicago,  I  concluded  to  go  there  to  have  the 
operation  performed.  I  was  operated  upon  on  the 
day  of  the  American  Derby  that  was  won  by  "The 
Picket." 

The  operation  was  successful.  I  stayed  at  the 
Garfield  Park  Sanatorium  for  about  four  weeks,  and 
then  went  to  Waukesha,  Wisconsin,  where  I  spent 
a  month  or  two  recovering  my  strength. 

I  was  soon  again  in  St.  Louis,  where  I  organized 
a  company  and  purchased  the  steamer  "Hill  City," 
and  put  her  in  the  excursion  business  there. 

I  obtained  a  bank  roll  from  a  gambler  friend  and 
went  booking  at  the  Delmar  Race  Track  at  St. 
Louis,  with  more  or  less  success,  when  finally  I  be- 


Grafter  and  Gaaibler.  79 

came  a  past  master  at  the  art  of  cheating  the  Cella, 
Adler  and  Tillis  combmation  at  their  own  game,  and 
quit  the  Delmar  Race  Track  with  a  bank  roll  of 
about  sixty  thousand  dollars,  of  which  thirty-three 
and  one-third  per  cent,  was  mine. 

I  then  staked  Harry  Frolich  to  a  bank  roll  of  five 
thousand  dollars  to  make  a  book  at  New  Orleans. 
This  was  in  the  fall  of  1903.  I  proceeded  to  re- 
build the  steamer  "Hill  City,"  but  did  not  complete 
the  work  at  that  time. 

Not  being  sufficiently  wise  to  know  that  I  could 
not  gamble  and  run  a  business  at  the  same  time,  I 
gave  way  to  my  gamblmg  spirit,  and,  going  to  San 
Francisco  at  the  opening  of  the  races  at  the  Emery- 
ville track,  I  staked  Sam  Stephens  and  Frank  Bain 
to  book  for  me.  Not  being  satisfied  with  these  two 
bookmakers,  who  thoroughly  understood  their  busi- 
ness, I,  myself,  cut  in  and  went  along  for  quite  a 
little  while,  until  I  had  lost  all  my  money. 

I  then  quit  booking  and  gambling  and  left  San 
Francisco  on  New  Years'  Day,  1904,  broke,  arriving 
at  St  Louis  with  hardly  enough  to  pay  my  hack 
fare  from  the  depot  to  the  Southern  Hotel.  I  then 
commenced  to  figure  with  several  gamblers  to  get 
them  to  put  up  the  money  to  finish  my  boat,  and 
finally  succeeded  in  securing  a  loan  and  finished  the 
vessel,  re-narriing  her  "Corwin  H,  Spencer,"  after  a 
prominent  citizen  and  business  man  of  St.  Louis. 

I  started  out  in  the  Spring  of  the  World's  Fair 
year  as  master  of  that  steamer,  the  greatest  floating 


80  Easy  Money. 

gambling  hell  that  ever  existed  on  the  Mississippi, 
or  any  other  river. 

In  the  Fall  of  1904  I  took  my  boat  to  New  Or- 
leans. Arriving  there,  I  purchased  a  string  of  race 
horses  and  commenced  to  book  again,  in  addition  to 
running  excursions  for  gamblhig  purposes.  I  also 
purchased  "Tartan,"  the  best  race  horse  I  ever 
owned. 

I  lost  quite  a  good  deal  of  money  that  winter,  as 
it  rained  for  nine  consecutive  Sundays  and  killed 
my  excursion  business. 

In  April,  1905.  I  left  New  Orleans  with  the 
steamer  "Corwin  H.  Spencei,""'  for  St.  Louis.  I 
shipped  my  stable  of  race  horses  to  Memphis,  in 
charge  of  Johnnie  Powers,  my  trainer.  I  placed  the 
"Corwin  H.  Spencer"  in  the  excursion  business  at 
St.  Louis  and  continued  in  that  undertaking  during 
the  summer  of  1905 

On  October  12th,  1905,  I  lost  my  boat  by  lire,  in 
which  I  came  very  near  losing  my  life,  being  res- 
cued from  a  fiery  death  by  Fred  Hemmerley,  my 
watchman,  and  a  negro  by  the  name  of  "Dutch 
Frank." 

In  the  fall  of  1905  I  shipped  my  string  of  horses 
to  Latonia,  and  then  went  back  to  New  Orleans, 
where  I  gambled  with  the  usual  ups  and  downs; 
and  in  the  spring  of  1906  found  myself  with  a  sta- 
ble of  race  horses  and  no  cash. 

I  then  shipped  "Tartan"  to  Memphis,  and  at- 
tempted to  pull  off  a  big  coup  with  this  horse.     I 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  81 

engaged  Jockey  Cherry  to  ride  him,  and  went  to 
one  or  two  of  my  old-time  gambh'ng  triends  and  had 
them  bet  the  money  tor  me. 

"Tartan"  won,  but  was  disqualified,  making-  a  dif- 
ference to  me  personally  of  thirty-six  thousand  dol- 
lars, which  I  would  have  received  for  my  part  of 
the  winnings  had  the  judge  not  been  so  observing. 

I  was  broke  again,  but  concluded  to  ship  "Tar- 
tan" to  New  York  for  one  big  clean-up.  I  went  to 
St.  Louis  to  raise  money  to  bet  on  him.  "Tartan" 
was  fitted  by  Trainer  Powers  for  the  race  of  his 
life,  and  when  he  .was.  cut  loose  foi-  this  killing  he 
won  hands  down  and  I  received  for  my  part  of  this 
race  thirty  thotisknd  dollars. 

This  money  did  not  last  me  thirty  days,  and  I  was 
compelled  to  go  to  work  as  manager  of  the  games 
on  the  Mississippi  river  steamer  "City  of  Provi- 
dence," on  a  percentage  basis  of  thirty  pei  cent  I 
controlled  and  managed  the  gambling  games  on  the 
"City  of  Providence'  during  the  summers  of 
1906-07-08. 

I  shipped  "Tartan"  to  Los  Angeles  in  the  tall  of 
1906  and  ran  him  short  in  one  race  without  Trainer 
Powers'  knowledge  that  the  horse  had  been  taken 
out  and  worked  in  the  morning — one  of  the  first 
cases  of  night  riding  in  California.  The  horse  fin- 
ished last,  as  I  had  planned  he  should,  not  even 
taking  my  trainer  into  the  scheme.  The  next  day 
"Tartan"  was  in  a  stake  race,  and  was  backed  from 
ten  to  one  to  two  to  one,  and  won  pulled  up. 

(6) 


82 


Easy  Money. 


In  the  spring  of  1907  I  sold  "Tartan"  to  John 
Brink  of  Los  Angeles.  This  grand  horse  was  later 
cut  down  and  destroyed  in  a  race.  A  nobler  and 
gamer  animal  never  Hved. 


Jockey  Jumping  from  Horse,  making  it  Appear  He  is  Falling, 
a  Trick  in  Fake  Races. 


Going  back  to  St.  Louis  I  steamboated  in  the 
summer,  and  in  the  fall  I  again  attempted  to  clean 
up  a  coup  on  some  of  the  pool-rooms  throughout 
the  country,  but  was  unsuccessful,  owing  to  a  mis- 
understanding of  my  betting  instructions,  which  left 
me  high  and  dry  and  flat  broke. 


Grafter .  and  Gambler.  83 

Going  back  to  Los  Angeles  in  the  fall  of  1908,  it 
was  a  case  of  up  and  down,  in  and  out  and  with  no 
success.  This  continued  until  March  oi  1909,  when 
I  conceived  the  idea  of  promoting  a  race  track  at 
Tia  Juana,  Mexico 

Organizing  my  company  at  Los  Angeles  and  San 
Diego,  I  went  to  the  City  of  Mexico  and  obtained 
a  concession  against  great  odds.  Here  it  looked  as 
though  I  had  a  million  dollars  in  my  inside  vest 
pocket — "almost/'  as  the  Dutchman  would  say. 

Let  it  suffice  at  this  time  to  state  that  while 
struggling  to  promote  the  Tia  Juana  scheme  I  was 
called  to  Washington,  D.  C,  and  there  was  sur- 
rounded by  such  conditions  that  there  seized  me  a 
sad  and  stunning  realization  of  my  awful  career, 
and  then  and  there  I  vowed  and  determined  that  I 
would  not  only  forsake  the  life  of  a  grafter  and 
gambler,  but  would  give  the  best  efforts  of  my  re- 
maining days  to  saving  others  from  its  hellish  whirl- 
pools. 

The  life  I  have  led  has  been  a  terrible  one  at 
times.  1  have  never  liked  the  business,  but  it  was 
money  ringing  in  my  ears  all  the  time.  I  have  met 
many  and  many  a  true-hearted  man  who  was  a  gam- 
bler and  a  grafter,  yet  who  would  lay  down  his  life 
tor  a  woman  oi  a  child.  My  acquaintance  has  been 
among  pickpockets,  thieves,  highway  robbers,  safe 
bloweis,  grafters,  gamblers,  policemen,  stool  pig- 
eons, politicians,  railroad  men,  bankers,  doctors, 
lawyers,  governors,  ministers;  and,  in  fact,  I  have 


84  Easy  Money. 

classed  among  my  friends  men  and  women  in  every 
walk  of  life,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest. 

When  I  think  at  times  of  the  corruption,  of  the 
double-dealing,  of  the  connivmg,  four-flushing  and 
sham  lives  that  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  people  in  the 
world  are  leading,  it  appalls  me.  There  is  only  one 
thmg  that  will  wipe  off  the  face  of  the  earth  crime, 
corruption  and  vice  and  lift  the  veil  of  false  living, 
and  that  is  by  turning  on  the  searchlight  of  public- 
ity. Exposure  is  the  only  remedy,  the  only  cure 
for  evils  mentally,  physically,  morally  and  socially. 
The  fear  of  letting  your  fellow-men  or  fellow-women 
know  what  you  are  really  doing  is  the  only  remedy 
for  these  diseases. 

I  am  not  a  saint,  nor  have  I  been  one.  You  can 
picture  me  as  having  been  just  as  bad  as  anyone  de- 
picted in  this  book,  and  5'ou  will  not  have  missed 
the  truth  very  far.  But  down  in  my  heart,  as  in  the 
heart  of  every  man  and  woman,  there  is  still  that 
feeling  and  desire  to  do  better. 

To  cure  the  gambler,  grafter  or  thief,  first  expose 
his  methods,  and  then  help  him  to  overcome  his  pas- 
sion for  gambling,  grafting  or  whatever  tends  to 
weaken  him,  and  teach  him  to  walk  the  straight  and 
narrow  path  of  life.  If  the  religious  bodies  of  all 
denominations  would  act  a  little  more  along  these 
lines,  they  could  accomplish  better  and  greater  re- 
sults 

In  the  pages  to  follow  I  will  relate  some  of  the 
varied  experiences  I  have  had  during  my  twenty- 


Grafter  and  Gambler.  85 

one  years'  association  with  the  gambling  element, 
thus  lUustratmg  its  sins,  its  failures  and  its  awful 
consequences,  and  will  also  expose  the  tricks  of 
horse  racing  and  all  gambling  games. 

I  desire  to  emphasize  one  fact :  To  gamble  means 
an  attempt  to  obtain  something  for  nothing.  Even 
when  you  gamble  on  the  square,  the  percentages  are 
against  you  I  sincerely  trust  that  by  my  exposures 
I  will  be  able  to  do  my  fellow-men  some  good,  and 
thus  atone  in  some  degree  for  my  heartless  preying 
upon  the  unsophisticated  in  years  gone  by. 


CHAPTER  V. 

A  RACE  TRACK  AND  ITS  OPERATION. 

A  race  track  is  an  oblong  road  a  mile  long  and 
sixty  or  eighty  feet  wide,  the  original  purpose  of 
which  was  to  test  the  speed  of  horses.  It  has  de- 
generated under  the  malign  influence  and  dishonest 
practices  of  grafters  into  a  deadfall,  where  those  who 
patronize  it  are  robbed  from  start  to  finish ;  robbed 
by  the  race-track  owners,  robbed  by  the  bookmak- 
ers, and  robbed  by  the  touts. 

The  only  honest  individuals  connected  with  this 
dishonest  industry  are  the  horses.  A  horse  will  not 
lie,  he  will  not  cheat,  and  he  will  do  his  best  to  win, 
in  which  effort  he  is  often  baffled  by  the  rascally 
jockey  who  rides  him  to  lose. 

The  thieves  who  conduct  a  race  track,  from  the 
principal  owner,  who  wears  a  diamond  pin  like  the 
headlight  of  a  locomotive  and  struts  along  the  grand 
stand,  to  the  stable  boy,  who  takes  a  bribe  to  dope 
the  favorite  horse,  are  all  members  of  a  sure-thing 
syndicate.  Occasionally  an  outsider  makes  a  win- 
ning by  happening  to  bet  by  accident  upon  the  horse 
that  has  been  fixed  to  win.  But  the  great  bulk  of 
the  money  that  is  bet  by  the  public  on  a  race  track 
is  simply  stolen  by  the  gamblers. 

Originally  the  result  of  the  race  was  ascertained 
by  stretching  a  wire  across  the  track  and  the  horse 

86 


Race  Track  and  Its  Operation.         87 

that  first  presented  his  nose  under  this  wire  was 
declared  the  winner. 

But  this  arrangement  did  not  present  adequate 
opportunities  for  thievery ;  for  hundreds  of  spec- 
tators could  see  which  horse  it  was  that  first  passed 
under  the  wire. 

So  the  actual  wire  was  banished  from  the  track 
and  in  its  place  was  "substituted  an  imaginary  wire, 
running  from  the  eyes  of  the  judges  to  a  point  on 
the  other  side  of  the  track. 

Obviously  the  point  of  view  governed  the  location 
of  the  imaginary  line.  The  angle  of  vision  was  a 
determining  factor,  and  judges  who  were  afflicted 
with  either  moral  or  actual  strabismus  might,  and 
usually  did,  in  a  close  contest,  name  as  the  winner 
the  animal  that  had  been  pleviously  slated  to  win, 
though  beaten  by  another  horse. 

Race  track  life  starts  at  four-thirty  in  the  morning 
with  the  stable  foreman  arousing  the  exercise  boys 
and  stable  hands.  The  horses  are  fed,  then  walked 
and  led  for  thirty  to  forty-five  minutes,  then  taken 
out  and  worked — some  slowly,  some  fast — to  show 
their  condition. 

They  are  then  returned  to  their  stables  and  fed 
again,  then  well  groomed,  and  by  ten  o'clock  all  of 
the  stable  work  is  done  and  the  horses  are  left  alone 
until  about  noon,  when  they  are  fed  again. 

In  the  meantime  the  owners  and  trainers  are  over 
at  the  secretary's  office  under  the  betting  shed,  mak- 
ing entries  for  the  next  day's  races.    The  entry  clerk, 


88'  Easy  Money. 

who  receives  the  entries,  usually  has  some  favorite 
owners  who  wait  until  the  last  moment  to  enter 
their  horses,  the  entry  clerk  tipping  off  to  them 
which  races  will  be  the  easiest  to  win,  and  the  own- 
ers entering  their  horses  in  those  races,  thereby 
cheating  the  other  race-track  horsemen. 

Entries  are  supposed  to  close  at  ten  o'clock  a.m., 
when  they  are  made  up,  the  weights  assigned  and 
the  entries  printed  for  the  racing  next  day.  Then 
the  owners  and  trainers,  or  ninety  per  cent,  of  them, 
get  their  heads  together  and  frame  up  races  for  the 
coming  day. 

About  one  o'clock  p.m.  the  telegraph  office  com- 
mences to  get  busy  sending  away  the  names  of  the 
jockeys,  scratches  and  future  prices  on  the  after- 
noon races;  also  tips  from  owners,  trainers  and 
touts,  and  even  race-track  officials. 

About  two  o'clock  the  bookmakers  commence  to 
arrive,  and  by  two-ten  are  in  action  and  ready  for 
business.  In  the  meantime  they  have  had  their  con- 
fidence agents  at  the  track  getting  what  information 
they  could  and  doing  what  business  they  could  with 
certain  owners,  trainers  and  jockeys. 

Booking  operations  now  commence.  The  victims 
are  arriving  with  their  dope  books.  The  thieving 
bookmaker  who  has  one  or  two  sure  things  up  his 
sleeve  immediately  hunches  the  price  so  as  to  get 
his  money  in  quickly  before  any  other  bookmakers 
become  aware  of  the  fact  that  he  has  a  "dead  one." 
These  arrangements  are  easily  told  upon  the  slates 


<  ij 


o 


r' 


90  Easy  Money. 

of  the  bookmakers  by  the  fraternity,  but  not  by  the 
suckers. 

This  will  keep  up  for  six  races  during  the  clay. 

The  race  itself  presents  an  animated  scene.  The 
wise  spectator  confines  his  investments  to  popcorn, 
salted  peanuts  and  lemonade  as  weak  as  it  is  vile. 
But  the  "sucker" — there  is  one  of  him  born  every 
minute — patronizes  the  bookies,  and  drops  his 
week's  wages  or  his  yesterday's  stealings  into  the 
hands  of  the  bookmaker,  and  every  dollar,  as  it  is 
seized  by  one  of  the  tentacles  of  the  devil  fish,  sings 
the  refrain,  "Farewell,  vain  world,  I'm  going  home." 

The  horses  start.  Through  the  paddock  gate  they 
come  with  quivering  ears,  distended  nostrils,  and 
eyes  aflame  with  eagerness.  They  are  ofif — all  ex- 
cept the  one  which,  by  previous  arrangement  with 
the  starter,  is  left  at  the  post.  With  hoofs  clattering 
they  rush.  The  crowd  cheers  and  yells  with  excite- 
ment. 

At  the  half-mile  post  four  or  five  are  close  to- 
gether; at  the  three-quarter  post  the  number  is  re- 
duced to  two  or  three.  Down  the  home  stretch  they 
come  with  mighty  strides.  There  it  is  that  the  fixed 
jockeys  do  the  work.  A  strong  but  secret  pull  on 
the  bridle  to  the  right  or  left,  a  sway  of  the  body,  a 
trick  of  whip  or  spur,  and  the  favorite  and  the  near 
favorite  are  out  of  the  running,  and  the  horse  that 
has  been  fixed  is  declared  the  winner  by  a  nose,  a 
throatlatch  or  a  neck. 


Race  Track  and  Its  Operation.        91 

And  the  fool  crowd  cheers  the  illicit  winner,  and 
those  who  have  been  induced  to  place  their  money 
on  the  loser  don't  cheer,  but  grit  their  teeth  and 
search  their  pockets,  and  again  seek  the  bookies  to 
be  plundered  again  and  yet  again. 

The  bookies  and  the  touts  and  the  race-track 
owners  ride  home  in  autos,  and  the  victims  ride 
home  in  the  crowded  street  cars. 

Noble  sport,  isn't  it?  About  the  only  fair  race 
nowadays  is  the  slow  race  at  country  fairs  where 
every  rider  bestrides  another  man's  animal,  and  the 
last  one  to  pass  under  the  wire  takes  the  prize. 
Even  in  this  kind  of  a  race  there  is  sometimes  crook- 
edness. For  instance,  where  the  rider  of  an  Anda- 
lusian  jackass  caused  his  animal  to  outspeed  all  oth- 
ers by  fastening  a  cabbage  at  the  end  of  a  short  pole 
and  swinging  it  in  front  of  the  nose  of  his  steed. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

RACE-TRACK  GRAFT  AND  PROFITS— BOOK- 
MAKERS. 

The  profits  derived  by  the  owners  of  race  tracks 
are  very  great.  Men  like  John  Condon  of  Chicago, 
Louis  A.  Cella  of  St.  Louis,  Thomas  H.  Williams 
of  San  Francisco,  "Sitting  Bull"  Bush  of  New  Or- 
leans, and  the  millionaires  who  own  the  race  tracks 
around  New  York,  have  made  millions  out  of  the 
operation  of  race  tracks — all  graft,  pure  and  simple. 
These  capitalists  are  the  ultimate  recipients  of  all 
the  money  gained  by  crookedness,  or  otherwise,  at 
race  tracks.  They  receive  pay  from  the  little  graft- 
ers for  the  privilege  of  working  graft  on  others. 

The  outsider  is  cheated  from  the  time  he  pur- 
chases a  ticket  of  admission  to  a  race  track,  to  the 
minute  when  he  departs  therefrom.  He  does  not  re- 
ceive any  value  for  the  price  of  his  ticket  in  the  way 
of  amusement,  for  he  beholds  no  honest  contest  of 
speed,  but  only  the  results  of  fixed  races.  If  he 
bets,  he  puts  up  his  money,  not  against  a  chance, 
but  on  or  against  a  sure-thing  game. 

Race-track  owners  know  of  the  thieving  methods 
of  the  bookmakers  and  the  corruption  among  jock- 
eys, trainers,  horse  owners,  and,  in  some  cases,  the 
clerk  of  the  scales,  assistant  starters  and  starters. 
They  cannot  tell  you  they  do  not  know  this,  because 

92 


Race  Track  Graft  and  Profits. 


93 


it  has  been  exposed  time  and  time  again;  yet  the 
race-track  owners  protect  the  smaller  grafters  be- 
cause they  receive  a  revenue  from  them  in  a  good 
many  different  ways. 


Race  Track  Grafters. 

The  outsider  has  about  as  much  chance  to  beat 
the  operators  at  a  race  track  as  he  would  have  if  he 
took  a  spin  on  a  merry-go-round  and  expected  to 
pick  up  a  thousand-dollar  bill  at  the  end  of  his  jour- 
ney. 


94  Easy  Money. 

Jones,  Smith  and  Brown  visit  a  race  track,  each 
determined  to  back  his  favorite  in  a  certain  race.  It 
so  happens  that  there  are  three  starters  in  this  par- 
ticular event.  The  gentlemen  step  up  to  a  book  and 
see  the  following  quotations,  or  odds,  on  the  slate 
of  the  bookmaker: 

Jack  Atkin   4  to  5 

Tartan    8  to  5         .  ^ 

King  Barleycorn   4  to  1 

Jones  is  a  confirmed  "favorite"  player,  and  bets 
$100  on  Jack  Atkin  to  win  $80.  By  playing  the  fa- 
vorite is  meant  that  Jones  believes  that  the  horse 
carrying  the  smallest  odds  is  more  likely  to  win  than 
any  of  the  other  entries. 

Smith  likes  Tartan  and  bets  $70  to  win  $112. 

Brown  believes  the  outsider  has  a  royal  chance, 
and  invests  $36  on  King  Barleycorn  and  receives  a 
ticket  which  reads  $144  to  $36. 

Now  what  Jones,  Smith  and  Brown  did  in  the 
above  instance  is  a  simple  illustration  of  what  the 
public  is  doing  at  the  races  every  day.  The  book- 
maker has  received  from  the  three  bettors  two  hun- 
dred and  six  dollars.  If  Jack  Atkin  wms  he  pays 
out  $180  and  is  $26  ahead.  If  Tartan  wins  he  pays 
out  $182  and  is  $24  ahead.  If  Barleycorn  wins  he 
pays  out  $180  and  is  $26  ahead. 

Did  the  bookmaker  gamble  with  Jones,  Smith  and 
Brown  in  the  above  instance?  No.  Jones,  Smith 
and  Brown  were  gambling  between  themselves. 
The  bookmaker  was  simply  the  stakeholder,  and  re- 


Bookmaker's  Stand  and  Slate. 


95 


96  Easy  Money. 

ceived  about  fifteen  per  cent,  for  holding  the  money 
which  the  trio  had  played  on  the  different  horses. 
In  other  words,  the  bookmaker's  profit  on  the  event 
was  nearly  fifteen  per  cent. 

In  this  way  the  bookmakers  act  as  stakeholders 
in  six  races  a  day,  six  days  in  a  week — sometimes 
seven  days — fifty-two  weeks  in  a  year.  I  have  been 
at  it  for  21  years. 

It  will  be  pertinent  and  interesting  to  here  quote 
from  the  argument  against  race-track  gambling 
made  by  Hon.  W.  E.  Raney,  K.C.,  before  a  commit- 
tee of  the  House  of  Commons  at  Ottawa,  Canada, 
recently : 

"These  two  questions  naturally  suggest  them- 
selves :  What  is  the  total  amount  wagered  with  the 
bookmakers  in  a  year  on  the  six  tracks  in  question? 

"It  is  impossible  to  answer  definitely,  but  we  are 
not  left  wholly  at  sea.  Mr.  Orpen  produced  before 
the  committee  some  of  his  bookmakers'  sheets,  i.  e., 
books  made  on  the  Woodbine  track.  These  books 
averaged  about  $850  in  amount.  On  that  basis  a 
bookmaker  would  handle  for  the  six  races  run  in  a 
day  about  $5000.  He  pays  on  an  average  over  the 
different  tracks  a  license  fee  of  about  $100  a  day. 
Given  these  figures  and  that  the  total  amount  paid 
in  license  fees  by  the  bookmakers  on  the  six  tracks 
in  1909  was  $450,000,  it  is  a  simple  problem  in  the 
rule  of  three,  and  the  answer  is  $22,500,000  wagered 
on  the  six  tracks  in  1909. 


Race  Track  Graft  and  Profits.         97 

"Then  what  was  the  profit  or  loss  to  the  men  who 
backed  the  horses  against  the  bookmakers  on  these 
tracks  in  1909? 

"Some  light  was  thrown  upon  this  question  by  the 
evidence  of  the  Toronto  butcher  who  has  played  the 
races  for  ten  years  at  an  average  annual  cost  of 
$1,000  a  year;  that  is  to  say,  his  whole  net  income 
and  more.  He  started  in  with  a  surplus  of  $3,000, 
and  he  admitted  that  he  is  now  $2,500  behind  ;  and 
he  said  that  in  his  ten  years'  experience  he  had 
known  hundreds  of  men  like  himself^ — grocers, 
butchers,  bakers,  clerks,  teamsters,  laborers — who 
had  been  ruined  or  embarrassed  in  business  by  fol- 
lowing the  tracks,  and  he  produced  a  list  of  the 
names  of  fifty  such  men  which  he  had  been  able  to 
recall  ofifhand. 

"But  authentic  information  is  available.  Canon 
Horsley,  ex-chaplain  of  the  Clerkenwell  Prison, 
gave  evidence  before  the  Lords'  committee  in  1902. 
He  had  made  a  careful  study  of  the  subject  by  fol- 
lowing the  predictions  of  the  experts  in  the  sporting 
papers  and  then  noting  the  results.  It  will  suffice 
to  reproduce  one  question  and  the  answer : 

"EARL  OF  ABERDEEN:  'Did  you  take  the 
prophecies  from  one  of  the  well-known  sporting  pa- 
pers?' A.  'From  all  of  them.  I  have  here  a  case  in 
which  seven  sporting  papers  gave  seventy-nine 
horses.  In  seventy-four  cases  their  prophecies  were 
wrong.  Another  case  I  have  is  where  the  'Stand- 
ard' selected  one  hundred  and  seventy-nine  horses 

(7) 


98  Easy  Money. 

for  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  races.  One  hun- 
dred and  fifty-five  were  wrong  and  twenty-four 
right.  Some  sporting  papers  sneered  at  this,  and 
said  that  this  particular  prophet  did  not  know  very 
much  about  his  business.  Then  I  took  the  chief 
sporting  papers.  They  had  seven  races  that  week, 
and  gave  forty-five  horses,  of  which  forty  were 
wrong.  Another  week  they  gave  forty-seven  horses, 
forty-six  being  wrong  and  one  right.  Then  to  take 
a  longer  period  of  a  month,  there  were  one  hundred 
and  fifty-six  races,  for  which  six  sporting  papers 
gave  eight  hundred  and  ninety-eight  horses,  out  of 
which  seven  hundred  and  seventy-seven  did  not  win. 
This  is  the  sort  of  thing  I  constantly  do ;  because  I 
have  found  with  intelligent  young  men  that  is  the 
best  argument  when  I  say,  'You  know  nothing  about 
a  race;'  and  they  answer,  'No,  but  so-and-so  does, 
therefore,  I  follow  him.' 

"Let  us  examine  for  a  moment  the  proposition 
that  bookmaking  is  a  necessary  support  of  the  race- 
course and  the  thoroughbred. 

"There  were  jockey  clubs  in  Greece  2,500  years 
ago.  There  were  Hebrews  then  as  now,  but  we 
have  not  heard  that  they  had  at  that  time  learned 
the  gentle  art  of  bookmaking  which  their  American 
descendants  have  practiced  with  so  much  profit  for 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century. 

"The  bookmaker  did  not  introduce  the  thorough- 
bred into  England.  He  did  not  introduce  him  into 
the  United  States  or  Canada.     He  did  not  invent 


Race  Track  Graft  and  Profits.  99 

race  tracks — the  Newmarket,  or  Epsom,  or  Good- 
wood, or  the  great  tracks  of  the  United  States  prior 
to  1880,  or  even  the  Woodbine.  As  a  financial  sup- 
])ort  to  the  race  track  he  was  unheard  of  until  about 
thirty  years  ago,  when  he  began  to  get  control  of 
the  American  tracks.  The  fact  is,  the  bookmaker  is 
a  parasite  of  the  thoroughbred,  and,  as  a  friend  of 
mine  points  out,  it  is  only  possible  to  defend  his  ex- 
istence on  the  David  Harum  theory,  that  'a  certain 
number  of  fleas  is  good  for  a  dog.' 

"Then  just  a  word  as  to  the  bookmakers,  and  I 
have  done.  The  argument  to  this  point  has  pro- 
ceeded on  the  assumption  that  the  bookmaker  is  an 
honest  gambler,  of  the  class  of  the  poker  player  who 
would  scorn  to  play  with  a  card  up  his  sleeve,  or  the 
dice  thrower  who  would  think  himself  a  scoundrel 
if  he  used  loaded  cubes.  This  assumption  would  ap- 
pear, however,  not  to  be  supported  by  the  facts.  No 
one  is  competent  to  speak  on  this  subject  except 
those  who  have  inside  knowledge,  and  I  do  not  pro- 
fess to  have  that.  But  some  of  those  who  have  it 
have  spoken,  and  as  they  are  men  who  had  peculiar 
means  of  knowing,  were  men  of  reputation  and 
could  have  no  reason  for  misstating  the  facts,  you 
will  perhaps  permit  me  to  quote  one  or  two  of  them 
briefly. 

"Pierre  Lorillard  is  a  name  well  known  among  the 
American  horsemen.  In  giving  his  reasons  in  the 
New  York  Tribune  for  retiring  from  the  turf,  he 
said  among  other  things:    T  am  very  much  opposed 


100  Easy  Money. 

to  the  bookmakers,  because  they  rob  the  public  and 
they  rob  owners  of  horses.  There  is  no  fairness  in 
their  dealings.  All  bookmaking  is  against  the 
horses.  A  bookmaker,  of  course,  could  not  live  un- 
less he  bet  against  horses,  and  in  the  course  of  ply- 
ing his  trade  he  steals  stable  secrets  and  buys  up 
jockeys  and  trainers.  The  bookmaking  system  is, 
therefore,  demoralizing  to  jockeys  and  trainers,  and 
hurtful  to  everything  and  everybody  connected  with 
racing.  The  bookmakers  are,  with  few  exceptions, 
rascals  who  would  be  fit  subjects  for  the  prison 
when  their  more  profitable  trade  of  robbing  the  pub- 
lic on  the  race  course  is  at  an  end.  We  have  out- 
lived the  necessity  for  these  fellows.' 

"Mr.  Lorillard  was  describing  the  United  States 
bookmaker,  and  it  is  the  United  States  bookmaker 
that  this  bill  will  deal  with.  The'  evidence  is  that 
there  are  not  more  than  about  a  dozen  bookmakers 
in  Canada,  and  none  who  give  their  whole  time  to 
the  business,  and  that  four-fifths,  or  five-sixths  of 
the  men  who  make  books  on  Canadian  tracks  are 
from  the  United  States. 

"And  the  English  bookmaker  and  his  following 
would  appear  to  be  no  whit  superior  to  the  Amer- 
ican. Listen  to  a  description  of  him  and  his  follow- 
ing by  Air.  James  Runciman,  a  devoted  admirer  of 
the  thoroughbred  and  of  honest  sport,  lately  editor 
of  the  London  Family  Herald  : 

"  'A  strange,  hard,  pitiless  crew  are  these  same 
bookmakers.     Personally,  strange  to  say,  they  are, 


Race  Track  Graft  and  Profits.        101 

in  private  life,  among  the  most  kindly  and  generous 
of  men ;  their  wild  life,  with  its  excitement  and 
hurry,  and  keen  encounters  of  wits,  never  seems  to 
make  them  anything  but  thoughtful  and  liberal 
when  distress  has  to  be  aided.  But  the  man  who 
will  go  far  out  of  his  way  to  perform  a  charitable  act 
will  take  your  very  skin  from  you  if  you  engage  him 
in  that  enclosure  which  is  his  battle-ground,  and  he 
will  not  be  very  particular  as  to  whether  he  wins 
your  skin  by  fair  means  or  foul.  *****  Jn 
sum,  then,  we  have  an  inner  circle  of  bookmakers 
who  take  care  either  to  bet  on  figures  alone,  or  on 
perfectly  accurate  and  secret  information.  We  have 
another  circle  of  sharp  owners  and  backers,  who,  by 
means  of  modified,  or  unmodified,  false  pretenses, 
succeed  at  times  in  beating  the  bookmakers.  We 
have  then  an  outer  circle,  composed  partly  of  stain- 
less gentlemen,  who  do  not  bet  and  who  want  no 
man's  money,  partly  of  perfectly  honest  fellows  who 
have  no  judgment,  no  real  knowledge,  and  no  self- 
restraint,  and  who  serve  as  prey  on  which  the  book- 
makers fatten.  And  then  we  have  circle  on  circle 
showing  every  shade  of  vice,  baseness,  cupidity,  and 
blank  folly.  First,  I  may  glance,  and  only  glance, 
at  the  unredeemed,  hopeless  villians  who  are  the  im- 
mediate hangers-on  of  the  turf.  People  hardly  be- 
lieve that  there  are  thousands  of  sturdy,  able-bodied 
men  scattered  among  our  great  towns  and  cities, 
who  have  never  worked,  and  who  never  mean  to 
work.     In  their  hoggish  way  they  feed  well  and  lie 


102  Easy  JNloney. 

warm — the  phrase  is  their  own  favorite — and  they 
subsist  like  odious  reptiles,  fed  from  rnysterious 
sources.  Go  to  any  suburban  race  meeting — I  don't 
care  which  you  pick — and  you  will  fancy  that  hell's 
tatterdemalions  have  got  holiday.  Whatsoever 
things  are  vile,  whatsoever  things  are  rougish,  bes- 
tial, abominable,  belong  to  the  race-course  loafers. 
To  call  them  thieves  is  to  flatter  them ;  for  their  im- 
pudent knavery  transcends  mere  thieving.  They 
have  not  a  virtue.  They  are  more  than  dangerous; 
and  if  ever  there  comes  a  great  social  convulsion, 
they  will  let  us  know  of  their  presence  in  an  awk- 
ward fashion ;  for  they  are  trained  to  riot,  fraud,  bes- 
tiality and  theft,  on  the  fringe  of  the  race  course.' 

"In  what  garments  of  respectability  shall  we 
clothe  this  motley  crew,  if  they  are  to  be  licensed, 
to  make  them  fit  company  for  the  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  the  United  States?  And  what  license  fee 
shall  we  extort  from  them  adequate  to  compensate 
for  the  injury  they  will  do  to  the  unformed  charac- 
ters of  the  rising  generation?  I  leave  the  jockey 
clubs  to  answer;  and  the  answer  will  come  back,  but 
not  from  the  jockey  clubs:  Tt  must  needs  be  that 
ofifences  come ;  but  woe  to  that  man  by  whom  the 
ofifense  cometh !'  " 

Aside  from  the  betting  there  are  many  other 
sources  of  revenues  on  a  race  track  which  serve  to 
take  the  money  from  the  pockets  of  the  patrons. 
Everything  inside  the  enclosure  is  placed  upon  a  ba- 
sis whereby  the  management  secures  a  portion  of 
the  profits. 


104  Easy  JNIoney. 

Included  in  the  revenues  are  gate  receipts,  bar 
privileges,  program  privileges,  privileges  of  candy 
and  fruit  stands,  privileges  from  the  restaurants  and 
lunch  counters,  revenues  derived  from  the  telegraph 
and  telephone  companies,  revenues  from  the  barber 
shop  and  bootblack  stands  and  from  the  selling  of 
paddock  badges  and  bookmakers'  privileges. 

Revenues  are  also  raised  from  the  supplies  of  the 
bookmakers,  such  as  tickets,  sheets,  pencils,  thumb 
tacks  and  other  necessities;  even  the  water  privilege 
is  sold. 

Fines  are  exacted  by  tlie  starter  and  judges. 
One-half  of  the  "run  up"  money  in  all  selling  races, 
the  messenger  service,  sale  of  box  seats,  feed  room 
privileges,  opera  glass  privileges,  cigar  stand,  laun- 
dry, and  the  stable  boarding  house,  all  goes  to  the 
management. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

ORAL  BETTING. 

For  the  past  twenty  years  or  more  the  professional 
bookmakers  and  gamblers  have  been  carrying  on 
their  corrupt  methods  so  extensively  that  most  all 
of  the  States  of  the  Union  have  legislated  against 
bookmaking  and  horse-race  gambling. 

As  a  subterfuge  and  means  of  evading  the  law  the 
bookmakers,  professional  gamblers  and  race-track 
proprietors  have  worked  out  a  system  which  they 
call  "Oral  Betting." 

"Oral  Betting"  was  conducted  in  the  following 
manner  upon  the  race  tracks  of  New  York  State  in 
the  summer  of  1909,  and  is  pursued  at  other  tracks: 

The  bookmaker  would  pay  a  privilege  to  the  rac- 
ing association  of  twenty-five  dollars  per  day,  os- 
tensibly for  the  jockeys  and  scratches ;  but  in  reality 
the  payment  was  for  the  privilege  of  booking.  A 
number  of  bookmakers  attempted  to  book  upon  the 
race  track  without  paying  this  privilege  and  were 
put  ofT  the  grounds  by  the  Pinkertons,  hired  by  the 
raccrtrack  proprietors. 

The  bookmaker  would  make  his  prices  and  put 
them  up  to  public  view  on  his  program.  Standing 
alongside  of  him  would  be  one  of  his  assistants,  or 
rather  clerks,  and  on  the  other  side  of  this  clerk 
would  be  another  assistant  or  clerk.    The  bettor  de- 

106 


Oral  Betting.  107 

siring  to  make  a  bet  would  say  to  the  bookmaker: 
"I  will  bet  you  one  hundred  dollars  on  Jack  Atkin  to 
win."  The  bookmaker  would  answer :  "All  right, 
you  are  on."  The  clerk  standing  next  to  the  book- 
maker would  register  this  bet  on  a  little  tab  of  paper 
which  he  held  in  his  pocket,  an  act  at  which  some  of 
such  clerks  became  expert,  using  a  short  pencil. 
This  clerk  would  also  register  the  bettor's  initial, 
tear  off  the  slip  of  paper  from  his  tab  and  pass  it  to 
the  other  clerk  standing  next  to  him,  who  in  turn 
would  follow^  the  bettor  away,  particularl}-  if  he  were 
known  as  poor  pay,  and  collect  the  one  hundred  dol- 
lars from  him  then  and  there,  taking  the  money  and 
the  slip  of  paper  over  to  another  assistant  quite  a 
ways  off,  who  was  the  cashier  for  the  same  book- 
maker. 

In  all  races  there  are  usually  from  two  to  ten 
horses,  and  sometimes  fifteen.  Six  races  a  day  with 
different  people  betting  on  different  horses  would 
make  it  impossible  for  the  bookmaker  to  make  his 
collections  if  the  bets  were  not  registered. 

During  the  running  of  the  race  the  cashier  and  the 
assistant  clerks  to  the  bookmaker  did  not  watch  the 
race,  but  got  together  in  the  betting  ring  and 
counted  their  cash  and  bets  taken,  and,  as  soon  as 
the  winner  was  announced,  assorted  their  tabs  and 
paid  off  the  losses  immediately  after  the  ofiticial  re- 
sult was  announced. 

The  track  owners  knew  this  to  be  a  fact,  and  any 
track  owner  that  permits  oral  betting  in  the  manner 


108  Easy  Money. 

described  above  is  as  guilty  of  violating  the  law  as 
the  bookmaker. 

The  oral  betting  system  offers  better  opportunity 
to  the  bookmakers  to  fleece  the  bettor  than  does 
open  betting.  The  race-track  judges  and  officials 
are  supposed  to  ignore  the  betting  end  of  the  game, 
and  if  a  thieving  bookmaker  is  laying  against  a 
"dead  one" — a  horse  that  is  not  trying  to  win — the 
bookmaker  can  take  from  the  public  on  that  horse 
ten  times  as  much  money  as  he  could  with  open  bet- 
ting; for  with  the  slates  up,  as  in  open  betting,  for 
five  or  ten  minutes  after  the  prices  are  put  up  the 
wise  bettors  and  other  bookmakers  can  easily  dis- 
cern the  fact  that  the  thieving  bookmaker  is  hand- 
ling a  dead  one,  and  the  other  bookmakers  can  make 
the  same  prices  on  the  same  horse,  and  the  judges 
can,  under  the  open  betting  system,  protect  the 
public  and  the  bettor  against  such  practice  to  a  great 
extent  by  sending  for  the  bookmaker's  sheets,  sub- 
stituting another  jockey  in  place  of  the  one  that  was 
carded  to  ride  the  horse,  sending  for  the  owner  or 
trainer  of  the  horse,  and  demand  to  know  why  this 
horse  has  gone  back  in  the  betting,  and  require  the 
owner,  trainer  and  jockey  to  show  some  cause  why 
the  particular  bookmaker  should  know  all  about  the 
horse  and  overlay  the  price  against  it.  Whereas,  in 
the  oral  betting  S3^stem  the  race-track  judges  must 
absolutely  ignore  all  acts  of  the  bookmakers  and 
cannot  protect  the  public. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

POOL-ROOMS. 

A  pool-room  is  an  ordinary  room  in  any  building, 
shed  or  tent,  into  which  is  run  a  telephone  or  tele- 
graph wire,  over  which  is  conveyed  information 
from  a  race  track  of  the  races  and  results. 

The  interior  furnishings  of  the  room  are  a  black- 
board, on  which  is  written  the  names  of  the  horses, 
jockeys,  weights  and  prices — or  as  used  in  eastern 
pool-rooms,  one  piece  of  cardboard  instead  of  a 
blackboard — a  telegraph  instrument,  telephones,  a 
few  chairs,  a  couple  of  tables,  the  Chicago  Racing 
Form  or  the  New  York  Telegraph,  with  tips  on  the 
races,  and  slips  on  which  to  register  bets. 

The  pool-room  proprietor  employs  a  cashier,  a 
man  who  receives  the  money  from  the  public,  a 
ticket-writer,  a  sheet-writer,  who  registers  the  bets 
made,  a  telegraph  operator,  a  doorkeeper  or  look- 
out, and  a  couple  of  touts  to  advise  the  bettors  how 
to  lose  their  money. 

When  the  racing  commences  at  the  track,  the 
odds  are  telegraphed  into  the  pool-room  and  called 
out  by  the  pool-room  proprietor.  Then  a  descrip- 
tin  of  the  race  is  given. 

The  track  correspondent,  in  sending  the  odds  to 
the  pool-room,  cuts  them  in  half,  so  that  the  pool- 
room player  receives  only  half  the  money  he  may 

109 


Ex-Governor  Hughes,  of  New  York,  Now  a  Member  of  the  U,  S.  Supreme 

Court,  Whose  Valiant  and  Fearless  Fight  Against  Race 

Tracks  in  New  York  was  Effective. 

HO 


Pool-Rooms.  Ill 

win  on  a  horse  that  is  won  by  a  bettor  at  the  race 
track. 

The  people  who  patronize  pool-rooms  are  of  a 
class  that  can  illy  afford  to  lose.  They  are  not 
aware  that  they  are  up  against  one  of  the  strongest 
sure-thing  games  on  earth,  and  that  only  about  five 
per  cent,  of  the  outsiders  or  players  ever  win.  They 
are  betting  on  a  race  that  is  run  a  thousand  or  more 
miles  away  from  the  pool-room.  They  do  not  know 
that  in  many  cases,  where  a  heavily  backed  horse 
and  a  favorite  in  the  race  has  lost  at  the  track,  and 
the  pool-room  proprietor  has  received  this  informa- 
tion, he  continues  to  take  in  money  on  the  horse 
and  then  gives  a  fake  description  of  a  race  and  an- 
nounces that  the  horse  has  lost,  which  fact  he  had 
known  for  some  minutes. 

But  if  everything  were  honest  the  straight  prices 
laid  in  a  pool-room  will  average  a  percentage  in 
favor  of  the  pool-room  proprietor  from  twenty-five 
to  one  hundred  per  cent.  The  place,  or  second, 
prices  will  average  from  thirty  to  fifty  per  cent.,  and 
the  show,  or  third,  prices  will  average  as  high  as 
one  thousand  per  cent,  against  the  player. 

Will  the  poor  individual  who  has  the  gam- 
bling fever  stop  and  consider?  In  some  pool-rooms 
they  have  as  many  as  three  sets  of  races  a  day. 
Figure  it  up  for  yourself  and  see  how  long  it  would 
take  you  to  lose  $1,000. 

The  pool-room  is  usually  connected  with  or  ad- 
jacent to  a  saloon.    If  the  bettor  is  lucky  enough  to 


112  Easy  Money. 

win  a  bet,  the  proprietor  will  immediately  send  a 
capper  to  tbf^  bar  with  the  lucky  bettor  and  pur- 
chase him  drinks,  and  the  capper  will  endeavor  to 
have  him  re-bet  the  money  he  has  won,  with  the 
result  that  he  loses  it. 

The  earnings  of  the  pool-room  are  something 
enormous.  The  amount  they  take  away  from  the 
gambling  public  is  appalling.  This  money,  though, 
is  not  all  profit,  for  the  pool-room  proprietor  is  re- 
quired to  give  a  good  portion  of  his  revenue  to  the 
main  politician,  or  some  official  or  policeman  in  the 
town  or  community  where  he  is  operating,  for  his 
protection. 

Pool-rooms  are  illegal  and  are  only  permitted  to 
thrive  and  run  through  lack  of  activity  on  the  part 
of  the  police  department  or  the  prosecuting  attor- 
ney in  the  city  where  they  are  operated.  A  good, 
vigorous  proscuting  attorney  or  police  board,  or 
sheriff,  can  close  any  pool-room  in  the  United 
States  in  twenty-four  hours  if  he  wants  to  do  it ;  par- 
ticularly the  pool-rooms  which  run  wide  open  and 
cater  to  the  public  in  general.  It  would  not  be  such 
an  easy  matter  to  close  the  pool-roms  which  run 
under  cover,  as  it  would  require  more  evidence, 
which  evidence  it  would  be  harder  to  obtain  than 
against  the  wide-open  rooms. 

In  any  community  where  a  pool-room  is  operated 
wide  open,  you  can  safely  say  that  the  proprietor 
of  the  room  is  doing  business  with  the  main  poli- 


■ 

^ 

-1 

^Wf 

1 

HIh^^  * 

^^^^^1^^^- 

%                "    -^ 

1 

Ex-Governor  Joseph  W.  Folk,  of   Missouri,  Who  Suppressed  Race  Tracks 
in  That  State. 
(8)  113 


114  Easy  Money. 

tician  in  that  community;  as  without  his  support 
and  cooperation  the  room  could  not  exist 

The  bettor  in  a  pool-room  bets  the  bookmaker 
one  hundred  dollars  that  "Jack  Atkin"  will  win  the 
third  race.  The  bookmaker  therefore  bets  that  "Jack 
Atkin"  will  not  win  the  race.  Races  are  closed  at 
post  time,  meaning  the  time  that  the  horses  go  to 
the  post  or  starting  gate  to  run  the  race. 

The  bookmaker  has  in  his  favor  the  following  ad- 
vantages :  The  bettor  does  not  know  the  condition 
of  the  horse  or  the  race  track.  He  does  not  know 
whether  the  horse's  work  has  put  him  in  condition 
for  the  race.  He  does  not  know  whether  the  black- 
smith has  intentionally  mis-shod  the  horse.  He 
does  not  know  but  that  the  blacksmith  has  schemed 
with  some  bookmaker  to  make  a  winning  on  this 
race.  He  does  not  know  whether  the  owner  has  bet 
against  his  own  horse.  He  does  not  know  whether 
his  horse  is  a  dead  one  or  not.  These  are  facts  that 
he  does  not  know  and  the  bookmaker  in  the  pool- 
room does  know. 

The  betting  in  a  pool-room  commences  when  the 
odds  are  received  from  the  race  track  on  the,  first 
race,  by  telegraph,  which  in  New  York  is  about  2 
o'clock.  The  prices  that  are  sent  from  the  race 
track  are  posted  on  a  small  piece  of  card-board ;  the 
names  of  the  horses,  the  jockeys,  the  weights,  and 
the  conditions  of  the  track,  whether  fa^t  or  muddy. 
Then  in  about  ten  minutes,  the  second  betting 
comes  in. 


Pool-Rooms.  115 

The  news  is  sent  from  the  race  track  by  race- 
track correspondents.  I  have  been  a  race-track 
correspondent.  The  correspondent  acts  only  in 
favor  of  the  pool-rooms  and  hand-bookmakers,  and 
never  favors  the  player.  The  track  correspondent 
protects  the  pool-rooms  instantly  by  making  a  cut 
in  the  price  of  the  horses,  if  there  is  a  change  in  that 
direction, at  the  track,  or  if  there  has  been  a  play  on 
him  at  the  track ;  but  he  does  not  hurry  to  protect 
the  pool-room  player  when  a  horse  goes  up  in  the 
betting.  I  mean  if  a  horse  has  been  two  to  one,  and 
perhaps  in  a  preliminary  warm-up  on  the  track  has 
shown  a  little  soreness  or  lameness,  then  his  betting 
goes  from  two  to  one  to  six  to  one.  The  track  corre- 
spondent, before  Sending  this  change,  waits  until  the 
second  betting.  He  does  not  flash  it  as  he  does  in 
the  case  of  a  well-backed  horse.  Consequently  the 
pool-room  player  is  not  protected  and  -is  cheated  out 
of  the  proper  odds. 

About  ten  minutes  after  the  second  betting  comes 
to  the  operator — either  by  telephone  or  telegraph — 
he  says  they  are  at  the  post.  Then  he  will  say  they 
are  ofif,  continuing  to  call :  "King  Barleycorn  leads 
at  the  quarter;  Tartan  second;  Pan  d'Oro  third." 

At  the  half-mile  post,  the  horses  may  reverse  their 
positions,  "Tartan"  first,  "King  Barleycorn"  second, 
"Pan  d'Oro"  third.  Again  at  the  three-quarter  post 
they  may  change  positions  and  then  enter  the 
stretch. 


116  Easy  Money. 

At  this  point  every  one  in  the  pool-room  is 
wrought  up  to  the  highest  tension ;  everyone  shout- 
ing for  his  horse  to  win. 

The  pool-room  bettors  are  one  hundred  or  three 
thousand  miles  away  from  the  race  track,  but  they 
have  become  inoculated  with  the  gambling  germ  to 
such  an  extent  that  they  almost  believe  that  they 
are  on  the  race  track  and  can  see  the  horses. 

I  have  seen  men  and  women,  boys  and  girls,  yell, 
call  for  their  horses  to  win,  scream  out  in  their  ex- 
citement, snap  their  fingers  and  jump  up  and  down, 
and  the  race  being  run  a  thousand  miles  or  more 
away.  They  seem  to  think  that  they  are  on  the 
track. 

Then  the  winner  is  announced,  and  also  the  sec- 
ond and  third  horses.  The  lucky  ones  that  bet  on 
the  winner  are  all  smiles,  patting  each  other  on  the 
back,  laughing,  roaring,  and  all  talking  at  once. 
They  think  they  have  made  a  killing.  They  begin 
to  inflate  as  would  a  blower  pigeon.  They  count 
themselves  smart,  for  they  have  beaten  the  book- 
maker. 

Yes,  they  have  beaten  the  bookmaker,  once,  per- 
haps, out  of  twenty-five  times.  These  are  the  win- 
ners. 

Now  look  at  the  loser.  He  presents  a  very  differ- 
ent picture.  His  is  the  other  side  of  the  story.  It 
may  be  his  last  dollar.  He  may  be  the  head  of  a 
family,  and  he  wonders  about  the  rent,  the  grocer^ 
bill,  the  many  other  expenses  that  he  cannot  novv 


Thomas  Marshall,  of  Indiana,  Who  Drove  the  Chicago  Gamblers  from 

His  State. 

117 


118  Easy  Money. 

meet.  What  is  he  going  to  do?  He  tries  to  smile. 
He  tries  to  be  game  and  laugh  it  off;  but  it  is  a 
laugh  without  any  mirth,  a  laugh  full  of  bitterness. 
He  gasps,  bites  his  lips,  and  the  contortion  of  his 
face  evidences  the  terrible  struggles  within. 

I  will  not  dwell  on  this  longer,  as  it  brings  to 
me  many  a  sad  memory.  I  can  see  these  things  too 
vividly. 

In  a  few  minutes  the  official  announcement  is 
made.  The  jockeys  are  weighed  out;  that  is,  cer- 
tain officials  of  the  track  take  the  weights  of  the 
boys  who  rode  the  horses  to  see  that  they  are  of 
the  right  weight.  Everything  is  announced  as 
being  right,  and  the  bets  will  now  be  paid  off. 
Then  commences  the  next  race,  with  a  repetition 
of  what  I  have  described. 

There  is  only  one  way  to  put  the  pool-rooms,  the 
hand-books  and  the  handbook  makers  out  of  busi- 
ness: and  that  is  by  prohibiting  the  transmission 
of  odds  over  the  telegraph  or  telephone  lines  from 
state  to  state. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
HAND-BOOKS. 

It  is  appalling  to  think  of  the  number  of  hand- 
books that  are  being  operated  in  the  United  States. 
The  suppression  of  hand-books  offers  a  serious 
problem  to  the  business  men  of  our  land,  and  they 
should  awaken  to  a  realization  of  what  this  swindle 
is  costing  them. 

The  percentage  against  the  player  in  the  hand- 
book will  run  from  five  to  fifteen  per  cent.  In  ad- 
dition to  this  large  percentage,  the  player  takes 
the  chance  of  never  receiving  his  money  even  when 
he  wins  his  bet,  as  there  are  a  number  of  hand-book 
thieves  operating  in  the  United  States. 

A  hand-book  is  a  book  made  by  a  man  or  woman 
who  receives  bets  on  a  race  being  run  at  a  distance. 
The  hand-book  operator  pays  according  to  the  re- 
sults of  the  race  and  prices  as  published  by  the 
New  York  Telegraph  or  the  Chicago  Racing  Form. 

Hand-book  gambling  is  carried  on  by  men  and 
women,  boys  and  girls,  who  place  bets  with  the 
hand-bookmaker  at  a  distance  from  the  track 
where  the  race  is  being  ran.  This  distance  may  be 
one  hundred  or  three  thousand  miles. 

A  hand-book  is  made  by  a  man  with  ^  capital  of 
from  fifty  cents  up,  according  to  the  amount  of 
money  that  he  may  care  to  handle  or  care  to  take 

U9 


120  Easy  Money. 

from  the  bettor.  It  is  usually  made  in  a  cigar 
store  or  saloon,  the  proprietor  of  which  affords 
such  facilities  without  any  cost  whatever  to  the 
hand-bookmaker,  as  it  brings  him  business. 

The  hand-bookmaker  employs  solicitors  or  run- 
ners upon  a  five-per-cent -commission  basis;  in 
other  words,  he  pays  the  solicitor  five  per  cent,  of 
the  bets  secured  by  him  in  cash.  If  you  were  to 
give  this  solicitor  a  bet  of  one  hundred  dollars  cash 
on  "Jack  Atkins,"  for  instance,  the  bookmaker 
would  .pay  the  solicitor  five  dollars  cash  when  he 
brought  the  bet  in.  He  would  credit  the  bettor 
with  the  entire  one  hundred  dollars  and  pay  the 
solicitor  five  dollars  besides. 

If  the  bettor  wins,  and  the  odds  are  two  to  one, 
the  hand-book  man  pays  the  bettor  three  hundred 
dollars,  and,  as  he  has  paid  the  five  dollars  to  the 
runner,  he  loses  two  hundred  and  five  dollars. 

But,  to  offset  this  loss,  the  bookmaker  receives 
five  or  ten  times  as  much  from  bettors  on  the 
horses  which  do  not  win.  He  takes  more  from  the 
losers  than  he  gives  to  the  winners;  and  hence  his 
certain  profit. 

The  class  of  people  that  the  hand-bookmakers  do 
business  with  are  those  who  have  not  the  oppor- 
tunity to  bet  at  the  race  track.  They  are  depart- 
ment-store clerk^  ofiice  clerks,  railroad  clerks,  and 
salaried  employees,  who  are  confined  by  their  work 
and  who  find  it  impossible  to  go  to  the  bookmaker 
themselves  and  bet  their  money.     They  are,  as  a 


IlaMcl  Books.  121 

rule,  people  who  do  not  want  it  known  that  they 
are  gambling  on  the  races,  people  whose  reputation 
and  positions  would  be  lost  if  their  betting  was 
known. 

The  solicitor  takes  the  money  and  the  bets  that 
he  has  collected  among  his  pla3^ers  back  to  the 
hand-bookmaker,  who  thereupon  enters  bets  in  the 
pool-rooms  in  such  a  manner  that,  whatever  the 
result  of  the  race,  he  cannot  possibly  lose. 

The  people  who  bet  with  hand-book  operators 
can  ill  afford  to  lose,  and  only  a  small  percentage 
of  them  ever  win.  They  are  mostly  working  girls, 
boys,  men  and  women,  who  cannot  get  away  from 
their  duties  to  visit  the  pool-rooms  or  the  race 
tracks. 


CHAPTER  X. 

GAMBLING  GERM. 

The  individual,  on  his  first  visit  to  a  race  track, 
looking  for  pleasure  and  recreation,  after  seeing  a 
race  or  two,  becomes  enthused  with  the  sport,  and 
to  make  it  more  interesting  invests  a  dollar  or  two 
upon  the  chances  of  a  horse — sometimes  winning, 
sometimes  losing.  If  he  wins  he  becomes  en- 
thused and  self-conceited  with  the  idea  that  his 
judgment  is  better  than  the  bookmaker's. 

He  trys  again,  this  time  losing.  He  tries  the 
third  time,  thinking  there  must  have  been  some 
mistake  in  his  losing  the  second  time.  He  loses 
again.  He  then  becomes  resentful  and  bitter  in- 
wardly at  the  bookmaker. 

The  individual  is  then  determined  to  get  the 
best  of  the  bookmaker,  and,  in  his  own  conceited 
estimate  of  himself,  deems  himself  sharper  and 
smarter  than  the  former. 

He  then  tries  again,  perhaps  winning,  which  only 
fires  his  imagination.  He  sees  greater  possibilities 
of  future  wealth,  and  he  takes  another  plunge  or 
two,  with  fatal  results.  He  has  by  this  time  had 
inoculated  into  his  system  the  gambling  germ.  It 
spreads  and  grasps  the  entire  brain. 

The  individual,  after  becoming  inoculated,  re- 
sembles a  confirmed  drunkard,  cocaine  fiend,  opium 

122 


Gambling  Germ.  123 

fiend,  or  tobacco  chewer.  His  very*,  acts,  words, 
deeds  and  thoughts  are  of  oamblitig.  fTe  neglects 
his  personal  appearance,  his  family,  his  business. 
The  gambling  germ  tightens  the  web  around  his 
brain,  closes  all  the  cells  of  that  organ  against 
righteousness,  truth  and  proper  conduct.  It  leaves 
only  one  little  cell  open  that  will  plan  to  beat  the 
other  fellow,  so  as  to  become  wealthy  without 
working.  He  plans  how  to  live  in  luxury  on  the 
poor,  innocent  bookmaker's  money — how  to  live  at 
the  rate  of  ten  or  fifteen  dollars  per  day  without 
any  income.  These  are  the  ideas  that  are  in  his 
brain.  He  is  grasping,  turning  and  reaching  for 
this  supposed  wealth,  and  it  is  like  the  mosquito 
that  lights  on  your  nose ;  when  you  reach  for  it,  it 
has  just  gone.    This  is  the  gambling  fever. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MALEVOLENCE    OF   RACING. 

The  assertion  that  a  race  track  is  a  benefit  to  a 
city  is  preposterous.  It  is  assumed  that  the  race 
attracts  numbers  of  people  who  expend  large  sums 
of  money  in  the  shops.  It  could  be  as  truthfully 
claimed  that  the  residence  in  a  city  of  a  large  con- 
tingent of  women  of  easy  virtue,  or  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  bar-keepers,  or  of  a  full  supply  of  burglars, 
is  a  benefit  to  it. 

During  race  weeks  there  are  added  to  the  popula- 
tion of  the  city  where  the  races  are  held  about  fifty 
bookmakers  and  clerks,  three  hundred  horsemen 
and  two  hundred  jockeys  and  stablemen.  These 
people  go  to  a  city,  not  to  bring  money  into  it,  but 
to  take  money  out  of  it ;  not  to  add  to  its  productive 
industries,  but  to  diminish  its  productive  energies. 

The  camp  followers  who  trail  after  the  races, 
even  as  vultures  follow  a  dying  steer,  bring  neither 
money  nor  muscle,  neither  brains  nor  brawn  to  the 
community.  They  are  not  sheep,  they  are  not  wool ; 
they  are  only  the  scissors  that  shear  the  sheep. 

Of  what  advantage  to  any  community  are  these 
purveyors  of  false  information,  these  magazines  of 
tips,  these  vendors  of  "sure  things?"  They  estab- 
lish no  industry,  they  create  nothing,  and  they  ben- 
efit nobody,  not  even  themselves.     The  race  track 

124 


Malevolence  of  Racing.  125 

is  a  pustule  on  the  neck  of  civilization,  and  its  own- 
ers and  manag-ers  sit  upon  it  like  a  bread  and  milk 
poultice  on  a  boil,  drawing  the  corruption  of  the 
community  to  a  head. 

The  people  who  come  to  the  city  to  shop  will  be 
lured  by  the  races.  The  merchants  of  the  city  will 
not  get  their  money,  but  the  touts  will.  Clerks  will 
borrow  money  on  their  salaries  to  give  it  to  the 
touts,  and  crawl  under  the  bed  when  they  hear  the 
bill  collector's  ring  at  the  front  door. 

A  racing  week  will  cost  the  people  of  the  munici- 
pality that  permits  it  about  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  Of  this  amount  fifty  per  cent, 
will  go  to  the  race  track  people,  twenty-five  per 
cent,  to  the  horse  owners  and  jockeys,  and  the  re- 
mainder to  the  educated  followers  of  the  racing 
game. 

And  when  the  racing  season  is  over  there  will  be 
left  in  the  city  its  debris  and  wreckage,  in  the  shape 
of  a  mob  of  undesirable  citizens,  who  are  friendless, 
and  moneyless,  and  characterless,  and  who,  for  lack 
of  money  to  buy  railroad  tickets,  and  lack  of  cour- 
age to  tramp,  and  lack  of  willingness  to  work,  will 
hang  around  the  free  lunch  tables  until  kicked  out, 
and  will  sleep  in  station  houses,  and  become  beg- 
gars, and  sneak  thieves,  and  porch  climbers. 

Crime  will  increase  and  pauperism  will  increase 
after  the  racing  season,  as  is  shown  by  the  statis- 
tics of  cities  which  have  had  the  misfortune  to  be- 
come racingf  centers. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

GAMBLING  BY  EMPLOYEES. 

Business  men  would  promote  their  interests  by 
gathering  statistics  showing  the  amount  of  money- 
lost  by  firms  through  the  embezzlement  and  thiev- 
ery of  their  employees  who  are  tempted  by  combi- 
nations of  gamblers. 

Employers  also  lose  the  time  wasted  by  their  em- 
ployees in  studying  and  reading  the  race  results  and 
sending  out  bets  during  the  day  by  the  office  boy  or 
over  the  phone  to  the  combination  of  bookmakers. 
This  time  is  paid  for  by  the  employer.  The  employee 
does  not  realize  that  he  is  stealing  time  from  the 
man  who  is  paying  his  salary,  nor  does  he  appreci- 
ate that  the  small  amounts  he  loses  in  gambling 
should  go  to  the  support  of  his  family  and  for  pay- 
ment of  his  honest  debts. 

Why  do  not  the  business  men  demand  the  sup- 
pression of  race-track  and  hand-book  gambling?  It 
can  be  done. 

There  are  fifty  thousand  race-track  players  in  the 
city  of  Chicago  gambling  with  the  hand-books, 
taking  time  that  belongs  to  their  employers  and  de- 
voting it  to  a  game  in  which  they  have  but  small 
chance  to  win.  It  is  easy  to  detect  the  employee  who 
bets.  The  first  thing  he  turns  to  in  the  morning  pa- 
per is  the  sporting  page,  or,  maybe,  he  carries  some 

126 


Gambling  by  Employees.  127 

racings  form  in  his  pocket.  There  arc  numerous 
other  ways  by  which  the  employer  can  tell  whether 
his  employee  is  a  race-track  gambler. 

By  making  rigid  rules  the  employer  cannot  only 
protect  himself,  but  he  can  protect  his  employee  and 
drive  a  nail  in  the  coffin  of  the  gamblers.  Do  the 
employers  know  that  in  most  of  the  stores  a  race- 
track hand-book  solicitor  mingles  with  the  em- 
ployees during  the  noon  hour?  Wake  up,  Mr.  Em- 
ployer, check  up,  and  see  if  I  am  not  right. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

MY  FIRST  RACE  HORSE. 

Winning  a  pretty  good  sized  wager  at  the  Mad- 
ison, Illinois,  race  track  one  day,  I  was  prevailed 
upon  by  a  former  jockey  by  the  name  of  Curtis  to 
purchase  a  race  horse.  Curtis  told  me  that  he  knew 
of  one  that  he  could  train  and  make  a  good  killing 
with.  He  took  me  to  the  owner  of  a  horse  named 
"Johnnie  \\'eber." 

After  carefully  looking  the  horse  over,  thinking 
that  I  knew  a  good  deal  about  a  horse  when  I  really 
knew  nothing,  I  finally  purchased  "Johnnie  Weber" 
for  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  dollars,  and  imme- 
diately employed  Curtis  as  the  trainer. 

This  horse  had  seen  his  best  days  at  racing,  and 
we  concluded  to  race  him  on  the  electric-light  night 
track  at  St.  Louis.  So  we  shipped  the  animal  to  the 
South  Side  Park  and  primed  him  for  a  killing. 

The  night  of  the  race  came,  and  Trainer  Curtis 
engaged  Jockey  Narvez  to  ride.  The  South  Side 
Park  race  track  was  owned  and  controlled  by  Cella, 
Adler  and  Tillis.  They  had  in  operation  four  books. 
John  Payne  of  Cincinnati  was  at  that  time  running 
a  pool-room  in  Cincinnati  on  these  night  races. 

My  trainer,  Curtis,  being  an  old  hand  at  the  game, 
advised  me  to  bet  but  very  little  money  in  the  bet- 
ting ring,  but  to  send  most  of  my  money  to  Cincin- 

128 


My  First  Race  Horse.  129 

nati.  Consequently,  I  wired  a  friend  of  mine  in  Cin- 
cinnati, telling  him  to  bet  five  hundred  dollars  on 
"Johnnie  Weber"  at  any  old  odds.  Curtis  had  me 
distribute  about  one  hundred  dollars  among  five  dif- 
ferent people  and  send  them  into  the  betting  ring  to 
bet  twenty  dollars  each  on  the  horse,  the  odds  on 
him  being  four  to  one  in  a  ten-horse  race,  and  he 
was  one  of  the  outsiders. 

The  percentage  against  the  player  in  this  race  was 
about  four  hundred  per  cent.,  but  I  did  not  know  at 
the  time  what  I  was  up  against  in  th^  percentage 
end  of  it.  Friends  of  mine  to  whom  I  had  given  one 
hundred  dollars  with  which  to  bet,  placed  some  of 
their  own  money,  and  by  post  time  "Johnnie  Weber" 
was  two  to  one.  It  was  a  mile  and  a  sixteenth  race, 
which  necessitated  passing  the  grand  stand  three 
times,  the  track  being  three-eighths  of  a  mile. 

When  the  horses  went  to  the  post  I  told  Jockey 
Narvez  that  if  he  would  win  I  would  give  him  one 
hundred  dollars.  This  was  more  than  the  jockeys 
usually  obtained  for  winning  ten  races.  He  assured 
me  that  he  would  do  his  very  best. 

The  horses  were  ofif  in  a  few  moments,  "Johnnie 
Weber"  being  last.  Passmg  the  grand  stand  the 
first  time  "Johnnie"  was  still  last  and  Narvez  was 
sitting  very  quiet  and  easy  on  the  horse.  I  hollered 
to  him  "turn  him  loose !"  I  thought  Curtis  would 
have  forty  fits  because  I  did  so.  He  swore  and 
stormed  and  said  he  was  training  the  horse  and  giv- 
ing the  orders,  and  for  me  to  keep  quiet, 

(9) 


130  Easy  Money. 

Turning  into  the  back  stretch  the  last  time  around 
Narvez  commenced  to  move  his  horse  up  and  grad- 
ually succeeded  in  overtaking  horse  after  horse  un- 
til, when  turning  into  the  head  of  the  home  stretch, 
"Johnnie  Weber"  was  in  second  position  and  Nar- 
vez was  commencing  to  ride  with  hand  and  whip. 

A  short  way  from  the  judges'  stand  "Johnnie 
Weber"  was  in  front  by  two  lengths,  and  won  pulled 
up  to  a  walk. 

I  won  on  this  race  about  twenty-four  hundred  dol- 
lars, of  which  I  gave  the  jockey  one  hundred  dollars 
and  the  trainer  four  hundred  dollars. 

"Johnnie  Weber"  looked  to  me  to  be  the  grandest 
horse  in  the  world.  He  had  carried  my  colors  to 
victory  at  the  first  asking,  and  I  would  not  have 
traded  him  for  the  greatest  race  horse  on  the  Amer- 
ican turf. 

This  one-hundred-and-twenty-five-dollar  horse 
won  for  me  in  all  about  ten  races,  and  I  finally  sold 
him  for  five  hundred  dollars. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

SOME   RACE-TRACK   EXPERIENCES- 
TRICKS  OF  THE  GAME. 

After  returning  from  a  trip  abroad  in  1903  I  went 
to  the  Delmar  race  track,  St.  Louis,  to  book.  I  was 
broke  at  the  time,  and  securing  a  bank  roll  from 
three  or  four  friends,  quickly  lost  it. 

I  then  went  to  an  old-time  gambler  and  explained 
the  situation  to  him.  I  told  him  that  Cella,  Adler 
and  Tillis,  through  the  manipulation  of  their  books, 
were  plundering  the  public,  and  that  I  thought  I 
could  beat  them  if  I  had  money  enough  with  which 
to  operate.  This  gambler  furnished  me  with  a  bank 
roll  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars,  and  I  went  to  the 
track  and  commenced  to  manipulate  and  fix  things 
among  the  jockeys  and  owners,  and  open  a  book. 

The  Cella  combination  had  one  individual  booking 
for  them  by  the  name  of  Mark  Moore,  who,  in  his 
own  estimation,  was  the  wisest  bookmaker  at  the 
track.  After  I  was  sure  of  my  ground  and  knew 
that  I  would  not  be  double-crossed,  I  laid  for  ]\Iark 
Moore  particularly. 

The  Cella  crowd  would  get  all  the  men  booking 
for  them  together  about  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing, after  they  had  fixed  up  one  or  two  races  for  the 
day,  and  make  the  prices  that  they  were  to  give  the 
public  for  the  afternoon.     I  had  succeeded  in  buying 


132  Easy  Money. 

the  help  of  one  of  the  employees  of  the  Cella  combi- 
nation. This  man  furnished  me  with  the  Cella 
prices.  Mark  Moore,  being"  the  leading  bookmaker 
for  them,  endeavored  to  induce  me  to  bet  against 
horses  that  they  had  fixed  to  win. 

Two  notable  instances  were  the  "Old  Stone-Fore- 
hand" race  and  the  "Taby  Tosa-Little  Scout"  race. 
The  "Old  Stone-Forehand"  race  was  fixed  by  the 
Cella  combination  for  "Forehand"  to  win,  and  in 
their  morning  prices  they  had  laid  seven  to  ten 
against  "Forehand."  I  proceeded  to  undo  their 
scheme  and  arranged  for  "Old  Stone"  to  win. 

Mark  ]\Ioore  came  to  my  stand  and  asked  what 
price  I  would  lay  against  "Forehand,"  and  I  said  six 
to  five.  Moore  said  he  would  bet  me  twenty-five 
hundred  dollars.  I  accepted  the  bet,  and  had  my 
ticket  writer  prepare  a  ticket  calling  for  three  thous- 
and to  twenty-five  hundred  dollars. 

Moore  asked  me  if  I  wanted  to  take  any  more  at 
that  price,  and  I  said  yes.  He  skirmished  around 
and  induced  two  other  bookmakers  of  the  Cella  com- 
bination to  bet  me  five  hundred  dollars  each  at  that 
price,  expecting,  of  course,  to  lay  this  money  ofif  to 
the  public  at  seven  to  ten  on  "Forehand,"  thereby 
scalping  the  market  and  plundering  the  public  at  the 
same  time. 

When  the  betting  on  the  race  commenced  the 
prices  were  put  up  by  the  Cella  combination  at  seven 
to  ten,  and  I  immediately  met  them  by  offering  the 
more  favorable  odds  of  six  to  five,  and  took  in  ten 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       133 

thousand  dollars  on  this  one  race,  preventing  the 
Cella  combination  from  laying  off  any  of  the  money 
they  had  bet  with  me. 

The  horses  were  soon  at  the  post  and  off,  "Fore- 
hand" being  last,  unfortunately  for  the  Cella  combi- 
nation. "Old  Stone"  got  away  in  front  and  won  by  a 
head  in  a  hard  drive,  which  feature  prevented  sus- 
picion by  the  Cella  combination  that  their  trick  had 
been  turned. 

Jockey  Sheehan,  who  rode  "Forehand,"  did  not  do 
any  business  with  me.  He  rode  his  best  and  had 
nothing  to  do  with  the  crooked  end  of  the  deal.  I, 
myself,  in  addition  to  taking  money  from  the  Cella 
combination  and  the  public,  bet  one  thousand  dol- 
lars on  "Old  Stone"  at  fifteen  to  one,  most  of  my 
money  being  bet  by  young  Grover  Baker,  who  at 
that  time  was  a  mere  slip  of  a  boy. 

It  was  really  laughable  to  see  the  expression  on 
the  faces  of  Cella,  Adler  and  Tillis,  Mark  Moore  and 
the  other  members  of  the  combination.  They  said  I 
was  very  lucky,  and,  of  course,  I  admitted  that  I 
was.  They  did  not  know  I  had  overplayed  them. 
They  had  taken  the  extra  precaution  of  putting  two 
men  at  work  in  my  book  to  see  that  I  did  not  cheat 
them,  and  I  must  say,  in  fairness  to  these  men,  that 
they  thought  I  was  lucky  and  did  not  know  that  I 
had  an  ace  in  the  hole  buried  a  little  deeper  than 
their  employers  could  see. 

I  gave  the  Cella  combination  two  or  three  days  to 
cool  off  before  commencing  operations  again  heav- 


134  Easy  Money. 

ily,  when  the  "Taby  Tosa-Little  Scout"  race  came 
up.  "Little  Scout"  belonged  to  Bennett  of  Mem- 
phis, and  was  considered  one  of  the  best  mud  run- 
ners in  the  country.  "Taby  Tosa,"  a  gray  horse  that 
had  shown  very  good  form  on  a  dry  track,  could  not 
run  in  the  mud.  This  was  a  well  known  fact.  The 
Cella  gang  had  fixed  the  race  so  that  "Little  Scout" 
was  to  win. 

W.  W.  Finn  had  a  horse  by  the  name  of  "Flint- 
rock"  entered  in  the  same  race,  and  he  sold  this 
horse  to  the  Hughes  Brothers  the  morning  of  the 
race.  He  was  in  on  the  "frame-up"  made  by  the 
Cella  combination,  and  he  wanted  to  raise  money  to 
bet  on  "Little  Scout." 

The  night  before  the  contest  I  had  a  conference 
with  a  few  interested  in  it  at  the  Montecello  Hotel, 
St.  Louis,  where  I  was  stopping.  They  agreed  with 
me  to  double-cross  the  Cella  combination  again,  and 
to  make  "Taby  Tosa"  win. 

Going  to  the  track  as  usual  about  noon  I  found 
Mark  Moore  laying  to  get  even  with  me.  He  asked 
me  the  price  I  was  laying  on  "Little  Scout."  I  told 
him  seven  to  ten,  the  Cella  combination's  price  being 
one  to  three,  as  it  was  only  a  four-horse  race.  Mark 
Aloore  bet  me  five  thousand  dollars  against  thirty- 
five  hundred  dollars.  I  took  the  bet  and  asked  him 
it  he  would  take  five  hundred  dollars  on  "Taby 
Tosa."  He  was  laying  at  the  time  seven  to  one 
against  "Taby  Tosa."  He  said,  "Why  sure.  'Taby 
Tosa'  can't  run  a  lick  in  the  mud."  I  said,  "All  right, 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       135 

Mark,  I  will  bet  you  five  hundred  dollars  more  on 
'Taby  Tosa,'  "  which  Mark  took. 

When  the  prices  were  put  up  for  the  race  the  Cella 
combination  opened  at  one  to  three  against  "Little 
Scout."     I  immediately  put  up  seven  to  ten. 

The  very  first  fish  I  hooked  was  W.  W.  Finn  for  a 
thousand  dollars  on  "Little  Scout,"  and  all  the  other 
wise  ones  connected  with  the  Cella  combination 
quickly  walked  into  my  trap  and  left  their  money. 
The  horses  were  off,  and  "Little  Scout"  away  in  the 
rear.  "Taby  Tosa"  in  front.  Rounding  into  the 
stretch  "Taby  Tosa"  was  in  front  by  probably  five 
lengths,  "Little  Scout"  was  second.  The  Cella  com- 
bination were  all  laughing  at  me,  thinking  they  had 
hooked  me  and  that  "Little  Scout"  would  win  easily, 
as  he  was  a  great  stretch  runner  in  the  mud.  I,  of 
course,  was  shouting  and  gleeful  on  account  of 
"Taby  Tosa"  in  front,  not  wanting  to  appear  as 
thoflgh  I  knew  what  the  finish  would  be. 

"Little  Scout"  gained  a  little  on  "Taby  Tosa," 
but  "Taby"  won  the  race.  "Little  Scout"  was  whip- 
ped unmercifully  by  Jockey  Sheehan,  horse  and  boy 
both  doing  their  best  on  this  occasion. 

The  Cella  crowd  was  like  the  center  of  a  volcano. 
Mark  Moore  was  in  bad,  and  so  were  all  of  the  smart 
ones.  Nearly  all  the  members  of  the  combination 
thought  it  was  another  case  of  Brolaski  luck,  but  big 
Louis  Cella  wouldn't  stand  for  the  luck  story. 
Walking  past  my  book,  he  went  over  to  Mark  Moore 
and  bawled  him  out,  saying,  "You  are  smart,  aren't 


136  Easy  Money. 

you?  You  were  going  to  hook  Brolaski.  Well, 
from  now  on  don't  you  try  to  hook  Brolaski  with  my 
money.  You  think  Brolaski  is  lucky,  but  Brolaski 
will  hook  you  ninety-nine  times  where  you  will  hook 
him  once.  I  know  that  it  was  not  luck  in  the  two 
cases  that  you  have  tried  to  hook  him.  He  has  an 
ace  in  the  hole  some  place,  and  hereafter  let  him 
alone." 

Cella,  Adler  and  Tillis  held  another  pow-wow  and 
notified  me  not  to  book  any  more ;  that  while  some 
of  them  thought  I  was  lucky,  Cella  himself  didn't 
want  my  game. 

AT   NEW   ORLEANS. 

Finding  myself  broke  one  Saturday  evening  at 
New  Orleans,  and  room  rent  due,  I  commenced  to 
figure  how  to  get  some  "easy  money,"  and  made  up 
my  mind  to  go  to  the  Suburban  race  track.  I  went 
there  on  Sunday  morning  about  ten  o'clock,  with 
plenty  of  confidence,  a  little  piece  of  chalk  and, my 
check  book  in  my  pocket,  with  a  balance  in  the  bank 
of  thirty  cents.  Sunday  races  were  run  on  that  track 
at  that  time. 

Arriving  at  the  track  I  hunted  up  a  jockey  friend, 
told  him  my  condition,  and  asked  if  he  was  going  to 
ride  any  horses  that  day.  He  said,  "Yes,  I  think  I 
will  ride  about  three  favorites." 

I  immediat-ely  made  arrangements  with  him  to 
split  the  sheet  which  meant  that  I  would  give  him 
half  the  money  I  would  take  in  on  the  horses  that 
he  rode,  if  he  would  pull  them  so  as  not  to  let  them 
win.    My  jockey  friend  agreed  to  do  so. 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       137 

When  the  time  came  to  draw  in  to  make  book  I 
put  my  name  down  on  the  appHcation  slip  and  drew 
stand  No.  1.  When  the  association's  secretary  came 
around  for  the  booking  privilege  I  made  out  a  check 
for  one  hundred  and  twenty  dollars ;  one  hundred 
dollars  was  for  the  booking  privilege  of  the  day,  fur 
five  races,  and  the  twenty  dollars  I  requested  the 
secretary  to  hand  me  in  small  change. 

I  opened  up  my  book  on  the  first  race,  in  which 
my  jockey  friend  did  not  ride,  and  went  along  rather 
slowly,  losing  to  the  race  one  hundred  and  sixty  dol- 
lars. 

Not  having  any  money,  you  will  wonder  how  I 
paid  ofif  my  loss.  I  immediately  put  up  my  prices 
for  the  second  race,  in  which  my  jockey  friend  was 
to  ride  a  horse  that  was  four  to  five.  I  quickly 
posted  odds  of  eight  to  five,  thus  doubling  the  odds 
in  favor  of  the  public. 

The  first  man  to  bet  with  me  was  Big  Chief, 
Archie  Zimmer,  who  placed  fifty  dollars  at  eight  to 
five  with  me,  and  whispered  to  me  confidentially 
that  I  had  better  cut  the  price  as  there  was  going  to 
be  a  lot  of  "wise  money"  bet.  I  thanked  him  and 
cut  to  seven  to  five.  Then  he  bet  me  fifty  dollars 
more,  as  the  other  books  were  only  laying  even 
money. 

When  Zimmer  left  the  betting  ring  to  go  to  the 
paddock  I  put  up  two  to  one.  In  the  meantime,  my 
cashier  was  paying  my  losses  on  the  first  race  out  of 
the  money  I  was  taking  in  on  the  next  race.    When 


138  Easy  Money. 

I  went  to  two  to  one  some  of  the  other  books  fol- 
lowed. 

At  post  time  I  was  laying  five  to  one  to  win,  two 
to  one  to  place,  and  even  money  third.     Big  Archie 
Zimmer  came  into  the  ring  and  hollered  his  head  oF 
saying  he  was  on  a  "dead  one"  and  that  I  knew  it 
I  said:    "No,  Archie,  I  am  a  millionaire  and  want  to 
give  my  money  away.     Purely  a  gamble  with  me." 

But  with  that  I  did  not  give  Archie  back  his 
money. 

Needless  to  say,  after  the  race  was  run,  the  horse 
that  I  laid  against,  which  my  jockey  friend  rode,  did 
not  finish  even  third.  I  won  about  nine  hundred  dol- 
lars on  the  race. 

In  the  third  race  my  jockey  friend  rode  the  favo- 
rite, and  I  won  about  one  thousand  dollars.  In  the 
fourth  race  he  rode  the  favorite,  a  one  to  two  shot. 
I  opened  him  at  even  money,  and  hooked  all  of  the 
wise  players  before  they  knew  that  they  were  bet- 
ting on  a  "dead  one." 

As  he  was  going  to  the  post  in  this  race  the  judges 
called  my  jockey  friend  to  the  judges'  stand  and  told 
him  they  wanted  him  to  win  the  race.  He  said :  "I 
can't."  They  asked,  "Why  can't  you?"  He  an- 
swered :  "I  have  made  different  arrangements  with 
Brolaski." 

As  there  were  no  other  boys  to  take  his  place,  the 
judges  smiled  and  let  the  race  go. 

My  jockey  friend's  share  of  that  Sunday's  work 
was  about  fifteen  hundred  dollars — all  taken  from 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       139 

the  public  in  one  afternoon.  Yet  this  same  jockey 
died  in  December,  1909,  in  the  County  Hospital  of 
Los  Angeles,  a  pauper.  His  death  was  due  to  de- 
lirium tremens. 

KINLOCH  JOCKEY  CLUB,  ST.  LOUIS. 

About  January,  1903,  Joseph  A.  Murphy,  who  had 
been  judge  at  the  St.  Louis  Fair  Grounds  race  track, 
and  had  refused  to  make  some  rulings  that  the  Cella- 
Adler-Tillis  combination  desired  him  to  make,  came 
to  Chicago  and  asked  me  if  I  would  advance  the 
money  to  open  up  the  Kinloch  Jockey  Club,  which 
he  proposed  to  run  in  opposition  to  the  Cella-Adler- 
Tillis  combination  in  the  spring  of  1903. 

I  advanced  Murphy  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  He 
went  to  St.  Louis  and  opened  the  Kinloch  Jockey 
Club  race  track,  and  ran  for  thirty  days  in  opposition 
to  the  Cella-Adler-Tillis  combination  and  made 
money  in  the  fight. 

My  object  in  staking  Murphy  at  the  time  was  that 
I  desired  to  even  up  old  scores  with  the  Cella-Adler- 
Tillis  combination. 

Joseph  D.  Lucas  and  Phil  Chew,  some  time  after 
this,  returned  to  me  the  amount  of  money  which  I 
had  advanced. 

I  do  not  know  whether  the  Cella-Adler-Tillis  com- 
bination ever  realized  who  was  really  the  financial 
backer  of  the  Kinloch  Jockey  Club. 

THE  "DR.  MATTHEWS"  RACE. 
Young  Grover  Baker  is    considered  by    many  as 
ooe  of  the  wisest  fish  that  swim  in  the  foul  pool  pre- 


140  Easy  Money. 

sided  over  by  Georg'e  Rose,  the  notorious  book- 
maker, but  once  at  least  he  failed  to  succeed  in  his 
attempt  to  rob  the  public. 

At  the  Santa  Anita  track,  Los  Angeles,  Baker  was 
doing  business  with  George  Rose,  and  Rose  had 
been  taking  money  from  bettors  on  a  horse  named 
"Dr.  Matthews,"  which  horse  Baker  had  "pulled" 
in  several  races  in  order  to  be  able  to  obtain  a  price 
when  the  time  came  for  "Dr.  Matthews"  to  be  per- 
mitted to  run.  Rose  knowing  that  "Dr.  Matthews" 
was  to  be  "pulled"  by  Baker  to  lose,  was  simply 
stealing  money  from  those  who  bet  on  the  horse. 

Finally  the  day  arrived  when  Baker  concluded  to 
let  "Dr.  Matthews"  win  a  race.  I  had  always  been 
very  friendly  with  Baker,  and  now  he  tried  to  avail 
himself  of  my  friendship  to  promote  his  plans  in  this 
race. 

Baker  wired  Ed.  Alvey,  then  in  the  East,  early  in 
the  morning  that  he  would  let  "Dr.  Matthews"  win 
and  to  bet  all  he  could  on  him.  This  telegram  was 
in  cipher.  I  had  a  copy  of  Baker's  cipher,  of  which 
fact  he  was  not  aware.  I  scraped  together  all  the 
money  I  could,  which  was  not  much,  for  I  was  vir- 
tually down  and  out  when  this  information  reached 
me. 

I  went  to  the  race  track  unusually  early  that 
morning,  and  going  to  Baker  asked  him  what  he  was 
going  to  do  in  the  "Dr.  Matthews"  race.  He  confi- 
dentially seized  me  by  the  lapel  of  the  coat,  took  me 
ofif  to  one  side  and  said  :  "Harry,  you  are  my  friend. 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       141 

I  don't  want  to  see  you  get  in  bad.  If  you  will  keep 
your  mouth  shut  I  will  let  you  handle  some  money 
for  me  in  the  'Dr.  Matthews'  race  today,"  which  I 
agreed  to  do.  He  gave  me  three  hundred  dollars, 
telling  me  to  bet  two  hundred  dollars  of  it,  ten  and 
twenty  dollars  at  a  time,  on  a  mare  that  Early 
Wright  had  in  the  race,  saying  that  he  was  not  go- 
ing to  turn  "Dr.  Matthews"  loose'that  day,  and  that 
he  would  give  me  another  hundred  dollars  to  lay 
against  his  horse  for  third,  providing  I  could  get 
some  bookmaker  to  lay  the  money  off  for  me. 

I  asked  him  the  second  time  if  such  was  his  real 
intention  for  the  day,  and  he  said  he  positively  would 
not  cut  "Dr.  Matthews"  loose  until  the  following 
week,  which  I  knew  was  a  lie. 

He  then  told  me  that  as  soon  as  the  prices  were 
up  in  this  particular  race  to  make  my  first  bet  with 
George  Rose  of  twenty  dollars  to  win  on  Early 
Wright's  mare,  which,  as  he  said,  was  to  be  the  cue 
for  Rose  to  take  all  the  money  on  "Dr.  Matthews" 
and  to  bet  his  own  money  on  Early  Wright's  mare. 

This  is  what  Baker  assured  me ;  but  in  fact  his  un- 
derstanding with  Rose  was  that  when  I  bet  Rose 
twenty  dollars  on  the  mare  of  Early  Wright  it  meant 
for  Rose  to  send  his  outside  men  to  bet  on  "Dr.  Mat- 
thews." Almost  everyone  at  the  race  track  knew 
that  Baker  and  I  were  very  friendly  and  they  would 
believe  that  if  I  were  betting  on  another  horse  then 
there  would  be  nothing  doing  with  "Dr.  Matthews." 


142  Easy  Money. 

With  Baker's  three  hundred  dollars  and  two  hun- 
dred of  my  own,  I  hunted  up  Abe  Clopton,  who  was 
racing  a  string  of  horses,  and  gave  him  my  money 
and  also  two  hundred  dollars  that  Baker  had  given 
me  to  bet  on  Early  Wright's  mare,  and  told  him  that 
the  minute  the  prices  went  up  on  "Dr.  Matthews" 
to  slip  around  the  ring  and  commence  betting  on 
him  with  everybody  but  Rose,  and  to  bet  it  all 
straight,  meaning  to  win,  and  as  swiftly  as  he  could 
with  the  different  bookmakers. 

When  the  prices  were  put  up  I,  pretending  to  fol- 
low Baker's  instructions,  rushed  from  the  paddock, 
after  talking  with  Baker,  with  a  stream  of  people  fol- 
lowing me  to  see  on  which  horse  I  bet.  I  passed 
George  Rose's  book,  went  to  the  other  end  of  the 
betting  ring  and  attempted  to  bet  one  hundred  dol- 
lars on  Early  Wright's  mare  with  a  bookmaker 
whom  I  knew  would  not  accept  the  money.  I  made 
three  pretended  attempts  to  bet  on  this  mare  in  a 
hurry-up  manner,  which  was  noticed  by  certain  bet- 
tors and  resulted  in  changing  the  price  on  her  from 
three  to  one  to  two  to  one,  and  without  betting  a 
dollar,  but  it  was  sufficient  to  satisfy  Baker,  I  had 
followed  his  instructions. 

I  then  slipped  around  the  betting  ring,  and,  with 
the  assistance  of  Clopton,  bet  all  the  money  I  had, 
five  hundred  dollars,  three  hundred  of  which  Baker 
had  given  me,  on  "Dr.  Matthews."  I  did  not  go 
near  Rose  at  all. 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       143 

I  then  went  out  into  the  paddock  and  told  Baker 
that  I  had  laid  against  "Dr.  Matthews"  for  him,  and 
had  bet  his  money  on  Early  Wright's  mare. 

After  Baker  had  saddled  "Dr.  Matthews"  and  gone 
into  the  betting  ring,  I  noticed  the  odds  on  the  horse 
were  quickly  cut  from  ten  to  one  to  four  to  one. 
Going  over  to  Rose's  stand  I  asked  him  if  he  had  bet. 
Rose,  of  course,  said  he  had  not,  as  he  hadn't  re- 
ceived the  word  or  cue  from  Baker.  Then  there  was 
a  hot  "confab"  between  the  two  fixers. 

The  horses  were  off.  "Dr.  Matthews"  won  the  race. 
Clopton  and  I  divided  between  us  five  thousand  dol- 
lars, mostly  Baker's  money.  Ed  Alvey  received  four 
to  one  for  the  money  he  had  placed  on  Baker's  wire, 
which  he  bet  in  hand-books  and  pool-rooms.  Baker 
received  the  double-cross  for  being  too  wise  for  once 
in  his  life  and  attempting  to  misuse  a  friend. 

"KING  BARLETCORN." 

I  purchased  "King  Barleycorn,"  an  old,  sour  dispo- 
sitioned  brute,  at  Harlem  Race  Track,  in  the  fall  of 
1902,  paying  one  hundred  and  seventy-five  dollars 
for  him,  and  turned  him  over  to  "Red"  Walker  to 
train,  after  shipping  him  to  New  Orleans.  I  gave 
Walker  instructions  to  get  the  horse  in  first-class 
condition,  to  pull  him  several  times  so  as  to  obtain 
a  price  against  him,  and  then  to  cut  loose  for  the 
money  when  he  was  absolutely  sure  of  the  horse's 
condition. 

In  the  winter  of  1902-1903,  while  I  was  operating 
in  Chicago,  Walker  wired  me  that  "King  Barley- 


144  Easy  Money. 

corn"  was  entered  in  a  certain  race,  was  "fit"  and  to 
never  stop  betting.  I  took  his  advice  and  bet  on 
"King  Barleycorn"  in  all  the  hand-books  and  pool- 
rooms of  Chicago  and  at  the  New  Orleans  race 
track,  winning  over  sixty  thousand  dollars  on  the 
race. 

JOCKEY  JOHNNIE  MOONEY. 

In  the  good  old  days  of  sure-thing  racing  on  the 
electric-light  night  tracks  at  St.  Louis,  one  of  the 
star  jockeys  was  Johnnie  Mooney.  Johnnie  cer- 
tainly was  a  wonderful  equestrian.  He  had  a  par- 
ticular way  of  herding  and  influencing  the  other 
boys  by  persuasion,  intimidation  or  bribing. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  incidents  of  my  ex- 
perience on  race  tracks  was  Johnnie's  "locking"  of 
Jockey  "Red"  Walker,  who  later  became  quite  fam- 
ous as  an  owner  and  trainer  of  horses.  Johnnie  and 
Walker  were  riding  at  the  East  St.  Louis  Race 
Track  one  winter,  when  horses  were  being  run  on 
ice  and  in  snow.  Walker  was  to  ride  a  horse  named 
"Cerberus."  Johnnie's  mount  was  an  outsider  in 
the  betting,  a  twelve-to-one  shot.  Johnnie  was 
broke  at  the  time.  He  hunted  me  up  the  night 
before  the  day  this  particular  race  was  to  be  run 
and  unfolded  to  me  a  plan  whereby  he  and  I  could 
make  some  sure  money,  telling  me  that  Red 
Walker  was  going  to  ride  the  favorite  in  the  race, 
and  if  I  would  lay  against  Walker's  mount  he  would 
"lock"  him  and  make  a  sure  thing  of  it  for  us.  I 
had  done  several  little  jobs  with  Johnnie  and  al- 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       145 

ways  found  him  on  the  square ;  so  took  his  word  for 
it,  and  the  next  day  had  a  bookmaker  friend  lay 
quite  a  good  deal  of  money  against  "Cerberus." 

When  they  were  of¥  Johnnie  paid  no  attention  to 
any  other  horse  in  the  race  but  W'alker's  mount. 
By  good  jockeyship  and  smartness.  Johnnie  imme- 
diately rushed  his  horse  to  the  side  of  Walker's 
mount,  but  did  not  interfere  with  him  in  any  man- 
ner, only  assuming  a  contending  position,  riding 
side  by  side  with  Walker's  mount  until  they  hit  the 
head  of  the  stretch,  when  Johnnie  bore  in  a  little 
bit,  just  enough  to  lock  Walker's  leg  with  his,  but 
not  enough  to  interfere  with  Walker's  mount  as 
to  bumping.  He  held  Walker  in  this  position  until 
two  or  three  other  horses  in  the  race  had  quite  a 
lead.  When  Johnnie  saw  that  Walker's  horse  could 
not  make  up  the  lost  ground,  he  opened  up  the  lock 
and  let  him  through,  but  it  was  too  late.  The  race 
was  virtually  over  and  Walker's  mount  finished 
third. 

Walker  complained  to  the  judges  because  of 
Johnnie's  interference,  and  the  latter  was  fined 
twenty-five  dollars  by  the  judges.  But  what  did 
Mooney  care?  He  and  I  divided  eighteen  hundred 
dollars  on  Walker's  defeat. 

Thus  the  public  was  cheated,  and  so  was  Walker; 
for  he  had  bet  his  money  on  his  own  mount. 

A  few  years  after  this,  when  Mooney  had  become 
too  heavy  to  ride,  he  and  I  were  hustling  around  St. 
Louis  Fair  Grounds  together,  and  we  induced  a  fel- 

(10) 


146  Easy  Money. 

low  to  make  quite  a  bet  on  a  mare  named  "Mamie 
G,"  belonging  to  Caesar  Young,  whom  Nan  Patter- 
son was  accused  of  killing.  The  running  of  this 
race  meant  a  good  deal  to  Mooney  and  me,  and  we 
landed  the  bet. 

Our  friend,  after  winning  the  bet,  turned  to 
Mooney  and  said:  "Why  didn't  you  let  me  bet  all 
the  money  straight?"  We  had  made  him  bet  five 
hundred  dollars  for  place  at  two  to  one,  and  five 
hundred  dollars  straight  at  six  to  one.  Mooney, 
being  sharp  as  a  tack,  quickly  said :  "I  am  sorry, 
but  give  me  that  place  ticket,"  which  the  fellow 
did.  Mooney  put  it  in  his  pocket.  I  had  the  ticket 
that  called  for  three  thousand  dollars  to  five  hun- 
dred dollars  cashed  and  received  fifteen  hundred 
dollars  for  our  part.  Mooney  in  the  meantime  took 
the  place  ticket  and  had  it  cashed,  receiving  fifteen 
hundred  dollars,  which  gave  us  fifteen  hundred  dol- 
lars each  for  our  afternoon's  work. 

There  was  only  one  bad  feature  to  the  transac- 
tion,— poor  Johnnie  Mooney  couldn't  eat  for  sev- 
eral days.  Every  time  he  touched  a  bite  he  would 
thing  of  the  poor  victim  and  the  place  bet  and  al- 
most choke  with  laughter. 

"MINNIE  ADAMS— TARTAN"  RACE. 
Fred    Cook   was   touting,    skinning   suckers   and 
hustling  around  race  tracks  with  George  Dahlman, 
alias  "Squeeze,"  and  Ed  Morris,  the  man  who  initi- 
ated me  into  the  mysteries  of  the  racing  game, 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       147 

Cook  later  became  very  active  and  very  promi- 
nent as  a  race-horse  owner,  having  in  his  stables 
some  of  the  best  horses  in  America  in  his  day. 
among  them  being  a  mare  named  "Minnie  Adams." 

One  of  the  keenest  pleasures  of  my  experience  as 
a  race-horse  owner  was  in  beating  this  mare  with 
my  grand  horse  "Tartan." 

Cook  and  I  were  booking  at  the  Latonia  Race 
Track,  but  we  had  not  been  on  friendly  terms  on 
account  of  him  becoming  lofty  in  manner  and 
haughty  when  he  had  money.  On  the  day  in  ques- 
tion "Minnie  Adams'  "  price  was  one  to  three  and 
"Tartan's"  five  to  one.  There  is  no  question  that 
"Minnie  Adams"  was  the  better  racing  animal  of 
the  two. 

Cook  thought  that  he  would  win  easily  with  his 
mare.  I  was  sailing  along  with  a  very  light  bank 
roll  at  the  time,  but  made  up  my  mind  to  take  one 
grand  chance  in  this  race. 

My  trainer,  Johnnie  Powers,  had  engaged  Jockey 
Austin  to  ride  "Tartan."  Jockey  Aubushan  was  to 
have  the  mount  on  "Minnie  Adams." 

I  confided  to  Powers  that  I  intended  to  bet  my 
bank  roll  on  "Tartan,"  and  Powers,  being  an  extraor- 
dinarily conservative  individual,  told  me  that  I  had 
better  bet  my  money  for  place.  P>ut,  wanting  the 
extreme  satisfaction  of  beating  Cook,  and  at  the 
same  time  wanting  to  win  the  money,  I  told  him  I 
intended  to  bet  it  all  straight. 


14!> 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       149 

The  odds  were  put  iij)  on  the  slates.  I  laid  one 
to  two  on  "Minnie  Adams."  Little  Pesch  bet  me  one 
thousand  to  five  hundred  dollars  and  Fred  Cook  bet 
me  fifteen  hundred  dollars  to  seven  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars  on  "Minnie  Adams"  to  win.  I  bet  six 
hundred  dollars  on  "Tartan"  at  five  to  one. 

As  they  were  saddling  the  horses  to  go  to  the 
post  I  went  into  the  paddock  and  told  my  jockey 
that  the  flour  barrel  was  empty  and  no  provisions 
were  in  the  house,  and  that  I  would  be  broke  unless 
he  brought  home  the  bacon.  I  promised  him  two 
hundred  dollars  if  he  won  the  race.  He  said  he 
would  ride  his  best. 

After  my  trainer  had  given  orders  to  the  jockey 
as  to  how  "Tartan"  was  to  be  ridden,  we  went  over 
to  the  paddock  gate  to  watch  the  race. 

When  the  horses  had  paraded  past  the  grand 
stand  and  gone  to  the  starting  place  they  were  soon 
ofif,  with  "Minnie  Adams"  in  front  and  "Tartan" 
last.  Around  the  back  stretch  "Tartan"  had  raced 
into  second  position,  but  about  eight  lengths  behind 
"Minnie  Adams."  Turning  into  the  home  stretch 
"Minnie"  was  still  sailing  along  six  lengths  in  front, 
with  her  jockey  sitting  on  her  with  all  the  confidence 
in  the  world  that  she  would  win. 

Jockey  Austin  began  to  ride  "Tartan"  with  whip 
and  spur,  and  my  horse  was  gradually  closing  up 
on  the  mare.    But  I  had  given  up  hope  of  winning. 

When  they  passed  the  paddock  gate,  less  than 
four  hundred  feet  from  the  finish,  "Minnie  Adams" 


150  Easy  Money, 

was  in  front  by  a  length  and  a  half  and  her  jockey 
sitting  still  in  the  saddle,  thinking  that  he  would 
win  easily.  Jockey  Austin  was  now  riding  "Tartan" 
like  a  demon,  using  whip  and  spur.  "Tartan"  re- 
sponded gamely  and  gradually  reached  the  side  of 
"Minnie  Adams."  At  the  last  jump  Jockey  Austin 
virtually  threw  "Tartan"  under  the  wire  first,  win- 
ning by  a  nose,  and  in  as  terrific  a  drive  as  I  ever 
saw  on  a  race  track. 

Thisj-ace  cost  Cook  thousands  of  dollars  and  won 
thousands  for  me. 

I  had  the  extreme  satisfaction  of  saying  to  Cook 
in  a  sarcastic  manner:  "I  think  you  will  come  down 
ofif  your  lofty  perch  now  and  be  one  of  us  again." 

WAITING  FOR  THE  ODDS. 

Before  Issy  Ham — the  idea  of  a  Jew  by  the  name 
of  Ham — became  one  of  the  bookmakers  of  the 
country,  he  and  Sidney  Cohn  were  touting  around 
the  race  tracks  in  a  small  way,  engaged  in  wresting 
a  bare  living  from  precarious  fortune. 

One  evening,  after  losing  a  hard  bet  for  a  victim 
w^ithout  making  a  dollar  for  himself,  Issy  was  taken 
suddenly  ill.  Whether  it  was  nervous  prostration 
caused  by  losing,  or  appendicitis,  caused  by  a  com- 
bination of  heat,  watermelon  and  an  inadequate 
supply  of  gastric  juices,  will  remain  forever  un- 
known ;  but  the  conditions  seemed  to  call  for  a  doc- 
tor, and  Issy,  supported  by  Sidney,  groaned  his  way 
to  the  Flatiron  Building,  New  York,  to  interview 
Doctor  Goldberger. 


Some  Race  Track  Experiences.       151 

The  Doctor  was  out,  but  across  the  hall  was  the 
office  of  another  physician,  under  whose  name  on 
the  door  was  the  announcement,  "one  to  two." 

Sidney's  hand  was  on  the  door  handle,  but  Issy 
stopped  him,  and  pointing-  to  Doctor  Goldberger's 
sign,  which  read,  "Twelve  to  one,"  said :  "We  will 
wait  for  Dr.  Goldberger.  De  odds  makes  it  vorth 
while  to  vait.  Twelve  to  one  for  mine.  No  vun  to 
two  odds  for  me." 

MOSE    GOLDBLATT    AND    MONK    WAYMAN. 

Mose  Goldblatt,  not  being  very  successful  during 
the  summer  campaign  at  the  St.  Louis  race  tracks, 
shipped  his  stable  of  horses  to  Atlanta  to  race  on 
the  half-mile  track  there. 

Among  his  collection  of  equines  was  a  horse 
which  was  named  "Monk  Wayman,"  a  sour-tem- 
pered, sulky  brute,  that  would  only  run  if  he  hap- 
pened to  feel  like  it,  but  when  he  did  feel  like  it,  he 
could  speed  like  the  wind. 

Mose  had  bet  all  his  money,  and  almost  risked 
the  Goldblatt  family  jewels  on  this  erratic  beast 
during  the  summer,  and  when  he  reached  Atlanta 
he  was  in  a  pitiable  condition  of  impecuniosity. 

In  one  of  the  preliminary  trials  one  morning  there 
were  a  couple  of  boys  out  on  the  track  beating  tin 
pans  for  drums.  When  the  "Monk"  heard  this  noise, 
he  forgot  to  sulk  and  worked  extraordinarily  fast. 

Goldblatt,  being  an  observing  individual,  con- 
cluded that  he  had  discovered  a  way  to  give  his 
horse  speed  thrills.  He  entered  him  in  a  race  the 
next  day,  and  asked  me  if  I  could  find  a  man  to  bet 


152  Easy  Money. 

oh  "Monk  Wayman,"  explaining  his  idea  and  scheme 
to  make  the  horse  win,  which  was  to  line  up  a  lot  of 
stable  boys  and  stable  hands  on  the  back  stretch 
with  old  tin  cans  filled  with  stones  to  rattle  and 
make  a  noise,  old  wash  boilers  to  beat  on,  and  a 
couple  of  cow  bells.  I  laughed  and  said :  "Well, 
Mose,  we  can't  lose.  I'll  find  a  capitalist,  and  we 
will  take  a  crack  at  it." 

I  went  to  a  man  by  the  name  of  McBride,  who 
had  a  book  at  the  track,  and  was  noted  as  a  pretty 
heavy  operator,  and  told  him  that  I  could  fix  the 
race  that  "Monk  Wayman"  was  in,  provided  he 
would  bet  five  hundred  dollars  for  Goldblatt  and 
myself.  He  agreed  to  this.  I  then  introduced  Gold- 
blatt to  McBride  and  the  agreement  was  ratified. 

The  next  day  the  race  came  ofif.  Goldblatt  had  his 
orchestra  lined  up  on  the  back  stretch.  McBride 
bet  on  "Monk  Wayman"  with  the  other  bookmakers 
but  held  the  horse  out  of  his  own  book. 

The  race  was  on,  "Monk  Wayman"  being  last  as 
usual,  and  lying  in  last  position  when  he  hit  the 
back  stretch,  and  then  the  Goldblatt  band  of  tin 
cans  broke  loose. 

"Monk"  pricked  up  his  ears.  He  concluded  in  his 
horse  brain  that  an  earthquake  had  broken  loose, 
and  he  must  run  away  from  it.  In  about  twenty 
strides  he  went  from  the  last  position  in  the  race 
to  a  place  in  front  of  the  leader  and  then  left  the 
leader  behind,  pulling  up  winner  about  eight  or  ten 
lengths  ahead,  with  the  Goldblatt  band  still  jingling 
bells  and  beating  tin  pans. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

RACE-TRACK  TRICKS— GETTING  THE 
MONEY. 

The  amateur  who  bets  on  the  races  flatters  him- 
self that  he  is  placing  his  money  upon  what  appears 
to  be  a  sporting  chance.  In  reality  he  is  placing  his 
earnings  against  the  tricks  of  the  bookmakers,  and 
his  inexperience  against  the  professional  tactics  of 
shrewd  scoundrels.  In  most  instances  the  amateur 
bets  with  one  who  knows  how  the  race  will  end,  who 
takes  no  chances  whatever,  and  who  robs  his  vic- 
tim as  remorselessly  as  if  he  had  picked  his  pocket 
of  the  money. 

The  outsider  who  happens,  by  good  luck  rather 
than  good  judgment,  to  select  the  winning  horse, 
will  not  have  his  bet  refused  altogether,  even  by  the 
bookmaker  who  is  one  of  the  conspirators ;  for  that 
would  be  to  give  away  the  fraud ;  but  only  a  small 
bet  will  be  received  from  him,  while  the  outsider 
who  proposes  to  bet  upon  a  horse  that  is  not  slated 
to  win  can  plunge"  to  his  heart's  content. 

Sometimes  the  bookmaker  who  believes  himself 
to  be  on  the  inside  receives  the  "double  cross,"  and 
finds  himself  parted  from  his  bank  roll  by  one  of  his 
fellow  scoundrels.  But  as  a  rule  the  bookies  stand 
together  to  rob  the  general  public,  and  do  not  rob 
one  another. 

153 


154  Easy  Money. 

The  methods  employed  by  the  dishonest  book- 
makers to  obtain  money  from  the  unsuspecting  pub- 
lic are  many.  A  horse  can  be  taken  from  his  stable 
at  night  and  worked  so  as  to  unfit  him  for  the  race 
the  next  day.  This  may  be  done  with  or  without 
the  owner's  consent  or  knowledge. 

A  horse  may  be  "filled"  up  before  the  race  so  that 
he  cannot  run  his  best,  and  this  may  also  be  done 
with  or  without  the  owner's  consent. 

A  jockey  may  "pull"  his  horse  for  the  bookmaker, 
and  the  owner  know  nothing  of  it. 

Another  way  is  to  put  a  heavy  shoe  on  one  front 
foot  of  a  horse  and  a  heavy  shoe  on  one  back  foot, 
on  the  opposite  side,  and  a  light  shoe  on  one  back 
foot  and  a  light  shoe  on  one  front  foot,  on  the  op- 
posite side,  causing  the  horse  to  "wobble"  in  his 
strides. 

Still  another  way  is  to  send  a  horse  into  a  race 
with  lead  boots  or  lead  shoes. 

A  horse  can  be  left  at  the  post  or  held  at  the  post 
by  the  starter  or  his  assistant. 

A  horse  ridden  by  an  expert  jockey  can  prevent 
the  favorite  or  any  other  one  from  winning  by  in- 
terfering with  him  at  the  start  and  during  the  race. 

Horses  are  given  stimulants.  One  stimulant  is 
used  to  make  them  exert  themselves  and  run  in 
their  very  best  form.  Another  drug  is  used  to 
deaden  them,  to  make  them  drowsy,  so  that  they 
will  not  extend  themselves,  and  so  will  run  a  poor 
race. 


Race  Track  Tricks.  155 

Horses  are  very  often  "hopped,"  that  is  to  say. 
given  stimulants  for  betting  purposes.  A  horse  of  a 
sulky  nature  will  run  four  or  five  bad  races  and  the 
owner  will  then  "hop"  him  and  bet  on  him,  and  he 
will  run  a  good  race. 

Of  recent  years  a  good  many  horses  of  sulky  dis- 
positions have  been  awakened  by  the  use  of  an 
electric  saddle.  This  saddle  is  similar  to  the  ordi- 
nary one,  except  that  under  the  pommel  pad  there 
is  a  little  battery.  The  jockey,  when  he  wants  to 
turn  on  the  current,  inserts  a  little  pin  in  the  saddle, 
and  in  that  way  closes  the  circuit  and  charges  the 
horse  with  electricity;  just  enough  to  awaken  him 
and  make  him  run  his  hardest,  but  not  enough  to 
injure  him,  thereby  stirring  the  horse  to  his  greatest 
possible  speed.  The  same  horse,  without  the  use 
of  the  battery,  will  run  a  very  dull  race. 

In  the  summer  of  1909  a  thieving  bookmaker, 
well  known  on  the  New  York  and  Canadian  circuits, 
embarked  in  the  business  of  hiring  a  broken-down 
jockey  to  burglarize,  after  midnight,  the  stable 
where  the  favorite  for  the  next  day's  race  was 
stalled.  He  would  noiselessly  bring  the  horse  out, 
and  on  the  hard  macadamized  road  he  would  take  a 
five  or  six-mile  spin  on  the  borrowed  animal  at  a 
high  rate  of  speed.  This  violent  exercise  would 
render  the  horse  unfit  for  the  race  next  day,  but  his 
condition  would  not  be  observable. 

The  bookmaker  would  take  from  the  public  all 
the  money  bet  on  the  favorite,  amounting  usually 


156  Easy  Money. 

to  many  thousands  of  dollars.  The  jockey  who  did 
the  night  work,  and  who  took  the  chance  of  being 
sent  to  the  penitentiary  or  having  his  head  beat  off, 
would  receive  a  few  hundred  dollars  for  his  nefar- 
ious work,  and  the  public — well  the  public  would  be 
skinned  as  closely  as  an  ancient  martyr. 

The  phenomenal  success  upon  the  American  turf 
of  a  certain  well  known  race  track  supporter  can  be 
attributed  to  his  first  successful  crooked  venture. 

Several  years  ago  this  man  and  a  jockey  who  was 
a  successful  quarter-horse  rider,  bushed  the  half- 
mile  tracks  with  "Honest  John,"  an  old  quarter 
horse  now  forgotten. 

At  Albuquerque  "Estado"  was  added  to  his  one- 
horse  string,  and  at  Los  Vegas  he  pulled  off  a 
brazen  swindle  on  the  unsophisticated  townsmen, 
with  the  aid  of  a  lone  bookmaker. 

"Estado,"  a  legitimate  twenty-to-one  shot,  and  a 
horse  that  had  no  chance  at  all  in  the  race,  was 
made  a  three  to  five  shot  by  the  owner's  confeder- 
ate, the  bookmaker.  The  public,  not  knowing  the 
condition  of  the  horse,  and  that  he  was  in  no  shape 
to  run,  and  believing  that  he  was  a  legitimate  favor- 
ite, plunged  on  him. 

This  fellow  was  not  then  known  to  the  public, 
and  he  offered  to  bet  several  hundred  dollars  that 
the  field  would  beat  "Estado."  Numerous  wagers 
amounting  to  several  hundred  dollars  were  bet  by 
the  public  on  the  offer,  and  the  money  put  in  the 
hands  of  the  bookmaker,  who  was  the  owner's  con- 
federate. 


Race  Track  Tricks.  157 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  "Estado"  finished  last, 
his  owner  and  the  bookmaker  cleaning  up  the 
public. 

It  was  that  same  year  that  this  race  fixer  became 
possessed  of  "Los  Angeleno,"  the  horse  that  really 
made  him  famous.  This  horse  arrived  in  Denver 
ownerless,  as  his  caretaker  had  been  barred  from 
the  Denver  tracks.  When  his  owner,  a  colored 
blacksmith,  arrived  from  "Lucky"  Baldwin's 
Ranch,  he  found  his  horse  lame,  with  a  bill  of  about 
a  hundred  dollars  against  him. 

The  owner  of  "Estado"  purchased  "Los  Ange- 
leno"  from  the  colored  blacksmith  for  one  hundred 
dollars  cash  and  the  promise  of  a  payment  of  four 
hundred  dollars  more  in  installments  when  the  horse 
should  win.  He  started  the  horse  three  days  later 
with  Chief  (Indian)  Johnson  as  jockey,  and  won  at 
twenty  to  one. 

The  next  day  a  local  electrician  presented  a  bill 
for  fifty  dollars  to  Secretary  Weaver  for  one  dry 
battery  ordered  for  the  owner  of  "Los  Angeleno." 
As  the  horse  had  left  for  Pueblo  the  night  before, 
he  was  not  identified  as  the  man  who  had  ordered 
the  battery,  and  nothing  was  done. 

It  was  afterward  shown  that  the  groom  of  "Los 
Angeleno"  had  ordered  the  battery. 

While  I  was  race  track  correspondent  and  official 
caller  at  the  Kinloch  race  track  at  St.  Louis,  I  sent 
away  the  odds  for  the  Chicago  Racing  Form  and 
the  New  York  Telegraph ;  that  is  I  took  the  odds 


IbH 


Race  Track  Tricks.  159 

from  the  betting  ring  to  the  judges  and  to  the  news- 
paper representatives.  While  I  was  not  the  direct 
representative  of  the  two  above  mentioned  papers, 
yet  I  absolutely  controlled  the  betting  prices. 

In  the  same  capacity  at  the  same  time  were  Eddy 
Noel  at  Windsor,  Canada,  and  Willie  Cross  at  Chi- 
cago. 

Cross,  Noel  and  I  formed  a  combination  to  beat 
the  hand-books.  I  would  have  some  representative 
business  man,  who  was  willing  to  cheat,  bet  Fred 
Cook,  Frank  Carr  or  John  Cornelius  (all  of  whom 
were  making  hand-books  at  the  time  in  St.  Louis) 
a  parley  bet.  I  would  have  this  party  bet  on  one 
horse  running  at  Windsor,  Canada,  one  horse  at 
Chicago,  and  one  at  St.  Louis,  so  as  to  make  things 
look  natural.  My  bets  would  all  be  for  the  horses 
to  run  second.  I  would  immediately  wire  Cross 
and  Noel  the  names  of  the  horses  that  I  had  bet  on 
and  which  were  running  at  their  respective  places. 
If  the  bet  was  first  or  second  the  prices  would  be 
raised  from  even  money  to  perhaps  four  or  five  to 
one.  If  the  horses  would  lose  they  would  be  out  for 
the  place.  Of  course,  I  would  take  care  of  the 
horses  at  my  track  in  the  same  manner.  When  a 
horse  was  out  for  the  place  it  meant  that  the  bet 
didn't  go ;  consequently  I  took  no  chance  of  losing 
my  money. 

We  worked  this  deal  quite  a  while  on  the  hand- 
books and  made  a  lot  of  money  between  the  three 
of  us  and  the  people  who  placed  our  money  for  us. 


160  Easy  Money. 

In  addition  to  this  we  were  also  doing  business 
with  the  hand-bookmakers  themselves  on  all  events, 
excepting  where  we  were  betting  them. 

One  case  in  particular :  John  Cornelius  was  mak- 
ing the  largest  hand-book  in  St.  Louis  at  this  time, 
and  received  a  good  bet  from  Otto  Stifel,  the  mil- 
lionaire brewer  of  St.  Louis,  on  a  horse  named 
"Kitty  Clyde."  Cornelius  sent  word  out  to  the 
track  to  me  to  cut  the  price  of  "Kitty  Clyde,"  that 
he  had  received  a  big  bet  on  same. 

"Kitty  Clyde"  won,  but  her  price  should  have  been 
eight  to  one,  three  to  one  and  three  to  two.  I  cut 
the  price  to  two  and  one-half  to  one  and  even 
money,  thereby  cheating  Otto  Stifel  out  of  five 
hundred  and  fifty  dollars  on  each  one  hundred  dol- 
lars that  he  had  bet  with  Cornelius. 

For  this  cheating  I  received  five  hundred  dollars 
in  this  one  race. 

I  give  these  facts  to  show  the  public  and  the 
hand-bookmakers  what  they  are  up  against  in  race- 
track odds. 

TWO  PETE'S. 

One  of  the  greatest  race-track  scandals  that  was 
ever  brought  to  public  light  was  the  "Little  Pete 
Ring,"  operated  on  the  race  tracks  around  San  Fran- 
cisco. 

Little  Pete  had  formerly  been  a  waiter  in  a  res- 
taurant and  had  accumulated  a  little  money  and  ob- 
tained the  confidence  of  four  or  five  jockeys  riding 
at  San  Francisco.     With  the  use  of  his  persuasive 


Race  Track  Tricks.  161 

powers  he  corrupted  these  boys  to  the  extent  that 
he  framed  a  combination  with  them  called  the  "Lit- 
tle Pete  Ring."  They  framed  one  race  each  day  for 
Little  Pete. 

This  continued  for  about  two  years  until  Little 
Pete  had  accumulated  one  million  dollars.  But  he 
did  not  pay  the  jockeys  their  part  of  it,  so  the  mat- 
ter leaked  out. 

Little  Pete  today  is  broke  and  the  jockeys  all 
stand  ruled  off  and  broke. 

Pete  Hamilton,  known  among  the  racing  frater- 
nity as  "Blue  Pete",  probably  because  he  was  of  a 
downcast  disposition  and  sometimes  very  "blue", 
was  employed  at  Charleston,  S.  C,  during  the  race 
meeting  there,  to  hang  up  the  numbers  of  the  win- 
ning horses.  The  station  of  the  hanger  is  close  to 
the  wire  under  which  the  horses  pass.  He  is  sup- 
posed to  await  orders  from  the  judges'  stand  before 
hanging  up  the  numbers  of  the  first,  second  and 
third  horses  which  pass  under  the  wire,  but  he  often 
hung  them  up  without  awaiting  orders,  as  he  was 
closer  to  the  horses  than  were  the  judges,  and  his 
opportunities  of  accurate  observation  were  superior 
to  theirs. 

In  my  opinion  Blue  Pete's  solemn  demeanor  and 
taciturn  habits  were  a  cover  to  his  cheating  tricks. 
I  proposed  to  him  on  one  occasion  that  if  the  finish 
should  be  close  he  would  hang  up  the  number  of  the 
horse  on  which  I  had  bet,  whether  my  horse  won  or 
not,  and  that  I  would  divide  my  winnings  with  him. 

(11) 


162  Easy  Money. 

He  agreed  to  the  proposition  with  cheerfulness  and 
yet  with  dignity,  and  our  scheme  of  honest  industry 
was  inaugurated  the  next  day. 

My  horse  finished  second,  being  beaten  by  only  a 
nose.  But  before  the  judges  had  a  chance  to  signal 
Pete  he  put  up  the  number  of  my  horse  as  the  win- 
ner, and  the  number  of  the  real  winner  as  second. 
The  judges  agreed  to  Pete's  statement.  Pete  was 
closer  to  the  horses  than  they  were,  and  they  were 
nice,  easy-going  southern  gentlemen. 

In  five  days  Pete  had  hung  up  ten  wrong  numbers, 
and  he  and  I  divided  many  dollars.  We  came  to 
grief  because  one  of  the  judges  had  a  bet  on  a  horse 
that  really  won.  Pete  did  not  know  of  the  interest 
of  the  judge  in  the  race,  and  hung  up  the  judge's 
horse  as  second.  The  result  was  that  Pete  was 
"fired." 

'Tt  is  not  honest,"  said  Peter,  "for  a  judge  to  bet 
on  a  horse  and  then  decide  for  himself  that  his  horse 
has  won  the  race.  It  is  villainous  and  tends  to  lower 
the  standard  of  integrity  of  horse  racing." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

WOMEN  BETTORS.  • 

T  wonder  if  the  fair  sex  ever  think  what  they  are 
up  against  in  race-track  betting? 

The  men  who  gamble  do  not  want  them  in  the 
betting  ring.  There  is  no  law  against  it,  but  the  men 
think  that  it  would  hurt  the  game;  consequently  our 
poor  sisters  must  sit  up  in  the  grand  stand  like  good 
little  children  and  trust  money  they  intend  to  wager 
on  a  contest  to  an  official  pool  buyer,  licensed  by  the 
racing  association,  or  to  some  gentleman  friend. 

There  is  a  proverb  that  "money  handled  often  is 
bound  to  lose  its  strength  and  diminishes  with  each 
handling."  The  woman  bettor  has  no  way  of  know- 
ing the  odds  in  the  betting  ring,  except  the  odds 
shown  her  by  the  official  pool  buyer,  which,  as  a  rule, 
are  not  as  favorable  to  the  bettor  as  the  odds  posted 
in  the  betting  ring. 

The  official  pool  buyers  pay  a  privilege  of  from 
five  to  twenty-five  dollars  per  day  to  solicit  and 
carry  bets  for  the  women  in  the  grand  stand  to  the 
betting  ring.  Now  what  do  these  betting  agents  do? 
As  soon  as  the  prices  are  posted  on  the  bookmakers' 
slates  in  the  betting  ring  the  official  grand  stand 
pool-buying  messenger,  instead  of  writing  down  the 
prices  as  they  are  on  the  bookmakers'  slates,  which 
are  usually  strong  enough,  shades  these  prices.     If 

163 


l64  Easy  Money. 

a  horse  is  even  money,  the  pool  buyer  marks  it  seven 
to  ten.  If  a  horse  is  two  to  one,  the  pool  buyer 
marks  it  seven  to  five.  If  a  horse  is  six  to  one,  the 
pool  buyer  marks  it  four  to  one.  The  bookmakers' 
percentage  on  their  slates  will  run  from  five  to  fif- 
teen per  cent.,  but  the  pool  buyers'  prices  are  always 
fifty  to  eighty  per  cent,  in  their  favor. 

A  pool  buyer  goes  up  into  the  grand  stand,  shows 
the  women  bettors  his  prices.  Say,  for  instance,  one 
woman  bets  him  one  hundred  dollars  on  a  four-to- 
one  shot,  as  laid  by  him.  He  writes  her  a  ticket  call- 
ing for  four  hundred  dollars  to  one  hundred  dollars. 
Another  woman  bets  him  fifty  dollars  on  a  seven-to- 
five  shot.  He  gives  her  a  ticket  calling  for  seventy 
dollars  to  fifty  dollars. 

If  he  does  not  care  to  handle  this  money  himself 
he  immediately  goes  into  the  betting  ring  and  bets 
seventy-five  dollars  of  the  money  of  the  woman  who 
gave  him  the  one  hundred  on  the  four-to-one  shot, 
with  the  bookmaker  at  six  to  one,  receiving  a  ticket 
calling  for  four  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  to  seventy- 
five  dollars. 

If  the  horse  wins,  or  this  woman  wins  her  bet,  the 
pool  buyer  wins  fifty  dollars  without  taking  a 
chance,  and  if  the  horse  loses,  he  wins  twenty-five 
dollars  in  addition  to  charging  the  woman  twenty- 
five  cents  for  carrying  her  bet  to  the  bookmaker. 

The  seven-to-five-shot,  the  price  he  laid  the 
woman  who  bet  him  the  fifty  dollars,  really  is  a  two- 
to-one  shot  in  the  betting  ring.     He  bets  forty  dol- 


Women  Bettors.  105 

lars  to  win  eighty  with  the  bookmaker.  If  the 
woman  wins  her  bet,  he  wins  ten  dollars,  and  if  she 
loses  her  bet,  he  still  wins  ten  dollars. 

Each  one  of  these  women  bettors  has  been  cheated 
in  the  odds  and  this  cheating  is  known  to  the  race- 
track owners  and  permitted  by  them.  They  charge 
this  pool  buyer  a  privilege  for  this  cheating.  Conse- 
quently, it  is  the  race-track  owners  who  are  the  real 
cheaters  of  the  women  bettors. 

Why  have  the  women  not  the  same  right  in  a  bet- 
ting ring  that  a  man  has  ?  They  certainly  would  be 
much  more  orderly.  They  would  not  use  profanity, 
nor  indulge  in  intoxicating  beverages,  as  do  their 
brothers,  the  men  gamblers,  and  they  would  prevent 
a  good  deal  of  rowdyism  now  carried  on  by  the  men. 

Men  are  lunatics  for  betting  on  horse  races,  but 
women  who  do  so  are  victims  of  dementia. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

PUBLIC  CHOICE. 

A  public  choice  is  a  horse  that  has  shown  extraor- 
dinarily good  form  in  his  preliminary  work,  or  in  his 
previous  races,  and  the  horse  that  the  majority  of 
people  select  as  the  prospective  winner.  Such  a 
horse  is  called  "the  favorite"  in  the  race.  The 
chances  of  beating  this  horse  are  really  greater  than 
those  to  beat  any  of  the  others,  yet  the  public  be- 
lieves that  his  chances  to  win  are  better  than  any 
other  horse  in  the  race.  Such  is  not  the  fact.  While 
he  may  have  a  little  bit  more  speed,  yet  the  combina- 
tions against  his  chances  of  winning  are  great. 

Every  jockey  riding  in  the  race  against  the  favo- 
rite, or  public  choice,  is  only  watching  one  horse, 
and  that  horse  is  the  favorite,  consequently,  in  a  race 
where  there  are  six  horses,  five  jockeys  are  trying 
their  best  to  beat  this  one  horse,  and  the  chances  are 
they  will  "pocket"  him,  interfere  with  him  at  the 
start  and  at  every  turn,  and  use  every  means  to  cross 
in  front  of  him  and  foul  him  when  he  is  about  to 
make  his  run. 

Again,  the  thieving  bookmaker  can  take  more 
money  from  the  public  on  a  favorite  than  on  any 
other  horse,  because  the  public  wants  to  bet  on  this 
one  horse.  Consequently,  the  bookmaker  can  afford 
to  give  the  jockey,  owner  or  trainer  more  money  to 
pull  or  deaden  a  favorite  than  any  other  horse. 

166 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

JOCKEYS. 

There  are  slaves,  notwithstanding  the  thirteenth 
amendment  to  the  Federal  Constitution.  They  are 
boys  ranging-  in  age  from  ten  to  eighteen  years, 
nine-tenths  of  them  having  no  education  and  are 
afforded  no  opportunity  to  secure  one. 

They  are  required  to  arise  at  half  past  four  o'clock 
in  the  morning  and  to  work  until  seven  or  eight  at 
night.  Their  work  consists  in  galloping,  leading 
and  working  horses.  After  they  receive  three  or 
four  years  of  schooling  as  exercise  boys  they  are 
then  permitted  to  ride  in  races,  where  the  chances 
of  death  are  great. 

There  is  hardly  a  race  track  in  the  world  where 
there  has  not  been  from  one  to  ten  jockeys  killed 
each  year.  They  receive  during  their  apprentice- 
ship virtually  nothing  for  their  services.  They  are 
given  no  time  for  recreation,  are  illy  fed,  their  faces 
are  drawn  and  haggard,  they  do  not  know  what  the 
joys  and  pleasures  of  an  ordinary  boy  are,  they  can- 
not romp  and  play  as  do  the  boys  of  freedom ;  they 
are  bound  out  to  their  employer  and  are  virtually 
slaves.  After  they  become  professional  jockeys, 
about  one  per  cent,  of  them  are  successful  and  ac- 
cumulate some  little  money. 

The  small  boys  and  beginners  always  start  out 
honestly  as  a  rule,  but  they  soon  fall  into  evil  ways 

167 


168  Easy  Money. 

under  the  corrupting  influence  of  the  bookmakers 
who  fix  races  and   require   dishonest  riding. 

Men  gamble  on  the  ability  of  these  children,  and 
if  by  a  bad  ride  or  a  mishap  of  some  kind  their  bets 
are  lost,  the  jockey  usually  receives  a  good  whip- 
ping from  the  man  who  holds  the  c®ntract  on  him. 
FAMOUS  JOCKETS. 

Tod  Sloan  was  for  years  the  premier  jockey  of 
America,  and  one  of  three  brothers  who  were  also 
jockeys.  Tod  was  the  most  alert  and  quickest  to 
perceive  advantages  of  any  jockey  that  ever  strad- 
dled a  horse.  In  his  time  he  made  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  dollars ;  and  until  he  went  to  Europe 
and  ran  afoul  of  the  racing  laws  of  that  country  on 
account  of  his  irritable  disposition,  was  worth  a 
million  dollars.  Like  most  other  jockeys,  he  has 
lost  his  money  and  is  now  broke. 

Dave  Nicol,  who  for  years  rode  for  Edward  Cor- 
rigan,  was  the  best  money  rider  in  this  country  for 
years.  He  was  constantly  in  trouble  with  the 
starter;  for  he  was  looking  for  the  best  of  it  at  the 
start,  and  took  every  possible  advantage  at  the  post. 

J.  Lee,  the  negro  jockey,  holds  the  world's  record 
for  winning  six  straight  races  in  one  day.  He  was 
one  of  the  best  whip  riders  in  the  world.  J.  Lee  is 
still  riding  occasionally. 

Jockey  Notter  was  one  of  the  best  judges  of  pace 
and  a  noted  hand  rider.  He  has  ridden  some  of  the 
most  famous  horses  in  the  country. 

Charlie  Koerner  was,  over  a  long  distance  of 
ground,  what  is  called  a  "bear."    He  was  a  judge  of 


170  Easy  Money. 

pace  to  a  nicety  and  understood  my  horse  "Tartan" 
better  than  any  boy  that  ever  rode  him.  I  never 
lost  a  bet  with  Koerner  in  the  saddle — when  I  in- 
structed him  to  win. 

Jockey  Rahdke  was  in  a  class  by  himself,  but 
lasted  only  a  short  time  on  account  of  his  disagree- 
able and  irritable  disposition.  He  later  went  to 
Russia  with  Jack  Keene,  but  did  not  last  there. 

Fred  Tarrall  was  rightly  called  the  "Honest 
Dutchman."  In  my  twenty-two  years  of  race-track 
gambling  I  never  heard  of  anything  crooked  in  con- 
nection with  Tarrall's  name.  He  would  only  ride  to 
win,  and,  when  it  came  to  a  close  finish,  usually  re- 
ceived the  decision,  as  he  never  knew  what  it  was  to 
quit  until  the  finish  wire  had  been  passed. 

Jockeys  Jerry  Chorn,  "Soup"  Perkins  and  Lonny 
Clayton  were  a  trio  of  negro  jockeys  of  a  few  years 
past  who  were  in  a  class  by  themselves.  Jockey 
Tiny  Williams,  also  a  negro,  was  a  first-class  jockey 
but,  like  the  other  three,  finally  wound  up  broke, 
with  his  riding  days  over. 

Tommy  Burns  was  one  of  the  best  post  riders  the 
race  track  ever  saw.  His  splendid  riding  made 
Charlie  Ellison,  who  was  the  Beau  Brummel  of  the 
race  tracks  in  the  Middle  West  for  years.  Tommy 
was  a  thoroughly  competent  rider  and  very  popular 
with  the  public. 

Monte  Preston,  who  was  suspended  for  one  year 
by  Judge  Hamilton  on  account  of  the  John  Lyle- 
Varieties  race,  and  who  is  now  training  race  horses, 


Jockeys.  171 

was  known  for  his  ability  and  nerve  in  going 
through  close  quarters  in  a  big  field  of  horses.  He 
was  a  game  and  consistent  rider. 

Walter  Miller  was  a  phenomenal  rider,  who  for 
two  years  led  all  American  jockeys.  There  was  no 
part  of  the  game,  that  Miller  wasn't  wise  to;  but 
you  never  hear  his  name  mentioned  now.  He  is  a 
thing  of  the  past.  An  artistic  rider  in  his  day,  but 
whose  head  was  turned  by  his  own  popularity. 

I  could  go  back  years  and  refer  to  Isaac  Alurphy, 
"Snapper"  Garrison,  Jimmy  McCormick,  McLaugh- 
lin, Patsy  McDermott,  and  even  Frank  Bain.  They 
say  of  Bain  that  he  had  to  quit  riding  on  account  of 
his  long  legs.  He  was  riding  a  favorite  one  time  at 
the  St.  Louis  Fair  Grounds  when  his  stirrup  straps 
broke,  and  in  straightening  out  his  legs  he  dug  them 
into  the  ground  and  tripped  up  the  horse  he  was 
riding.  Of  course  it  was  an  accident  and  Frank  told 
me  himself  in  later  years  that  he  was  afraid  of  an- 
other accident  of  that  kind  and  quit  riding. 

Jockeys  W.  Shaw  and  W.  Martin,  two  of  the 
shining  lights  of  the  past  in  jockeydom,  are  never 
heard  of  these  days,  and  are  probably  like  the  rest 
of  the  boys,  merely  existing. 

Jockeys  Musgrave  and  Tommy  Taylor  were 
in  the  employ  of  Phil  Chinn.  Tommy  Taylor  per- 
sonally was  as  nice  a  boy  and  perfect  a  little  gentle- 
man as  ever  rode  a  horse ;  but  Tommy  had  to  quit 
the  profession  on  account  of  his  holding  back  Col- 
onel Bob  in  a  race  at  the    Santa    Anita   race  track. 


172  Easy  Money. 

Despite  Tommy's  efforts  Colonel  Bob  almost  won, 
and  Tommy  had  a  spasm,  and  was  afraid  of  heart 
disease,  so  retired  from  the  turf.  Musgrave  is  still 
riding,  and  is  a  very  capable  jockey. 

Two  of  our  leading  jockeys,  W.  Maher  and  Win- 
nie O'Conner,  left  this  country -and  went  to  Eng- 
land. There  they  met  with  phenomenal  success.  I 
believe  Maher  today  is  the  best  thought  of  jockey 
in  the  world.  He  fortunately  saw  that  he  could 
make  more  money  honestly  than  in  any  other  way, 
and  has  adhered  strictly  to  this  policy.  He  is  now 
the  leading  jockey  in  England.  Winnie  O'Conner 
did  not  fare  quite  as  well. 

Jay  Martin  was  developed  by  K.  Spence,  one  of 
the  shrewdest  race-track  trainers  in  the  country. 
Jockey  Martin's  ability  was  best  seen  and  under- 
stood in  close  finishes. 

Jockeys  Scoville,  W.  Walsh  and  A.  Walsh,  J.  J. 
Walsh,  Archibald,  Liebert,  J.  McCarthy,  F.  Burton, 
D.  Austin,  C.  Riley,  R.  McDaniel,  Mentry,  Sandy, 
Hildebrand,  J.  Mclntyre  and  Charlie  Grand  were  all 
boys  of  very  promising  ability,  who  were  shining 
lights  temporarily  upon  the  turf,  but  faded  away  as 
did  Halley's  Comet,  without  disrupting  the  affairs 
of  turfdom. 

Jockey  Johnny  Bullman  was  the  best  rider  of  two- 
year-olds  that  has  been  before  the  public  in  the  last 
twenty  years.  He  could  beat  anybody  in  the  world 
away  from  the  post,  and  was  the  best  judge  of  posi- 
tion to  take  in  a  race  of  any  boy  I  have  ever  seen.. 


Jockeys.  173 

He  was  the  leading  jockey  for  a  year  or  two,  but 
like  the  rest,  is  only  a  memory  of  turf  history. 

Guy  Burns  was  the  making  of  an  A  No.  1  boy. 
splendid  and  honest  jockey,  but  fell  into  the  hands 
of  a  disreputable  horse  owner  who  so  mistreated  the 
boy  as  to  dishearten  and  make  him  only  a  fair  rider 

In  recent  years,  Jockeys  V.  Powers,  Schilling. 
Dugan,  Garner  and  Taplin  have  held  the  front  rank. 
Powers  was  a  splendid  rider  for  two  years,  but  his 
honesty  was  questioned  on  several  occasions  by  the 
judges,  and  he  is  now  on  the  downward  slide. 

Jockey  Eddie  Dugan  is  considered  the  rough  rider 
of  the  American  turf;  but  he  is  always  trying,  and 
will  be  a  jockey  all  his  life,  as  his  small  frame  fits 
him  for  the  business. 

Jockey  Taplin,  developed  by  H.  G.  Bidwell,  was  a 
very  promising  boy  at  one  time,  but  has  been 
wrongly  influenced. 

Jockey  Garner,  who  is  at  present  leading  the 
American  jockeys,  has  been  riding  for  years,  but  is 
only  a  fairly  good  horseman. 

Jockey  Schilling  is  undoubtedly  the  best  jockey 
ever  seen  in  America  since  the  days  of  Tod  Sloan 
and  Fred  Tarrall.  Schilling  is  in  a  class  by  himself. 
His  disposition  is  the  best.  He  is  thoroughly  con- 
versant with  all  the  tricks  of  the  trade.  He  never 
overlooks  an  opportunity  to  get  away  with  every  ad- 
vantage in  a  race,  is  an  excellent  judge  of  pace,  ab- 
solutely fearless,  and  one  of  the  few  boys  who  can 
tell  you  of  everything  that  has  happened  and  trans- 


174  Easy  Money. 

pired  in  a  race  and  of  all  the  horses  in  front  of  him 
after  he  has  dismounted.  He  is  quick  at  the  barrier, 
knows  the  shortest  way  home  when  the  checks  are 
down,  and  one  of  the  few  boys  riding  today  who  is 
honest  with  those  who  are  honest  with  him. 

My  advice  to  parents,  guardians  or  boys  them- 
selves who  have  the  jockey  bee  in  their  bonnet,  is 
to  get  somebody  to  kill  the  bee  quickly. 

A  jockey's  life  is  of  very  short  duration.  At  the 
most  they  must  work  three  or  four  years  or  five 
years  as  an  apprentice,  and  then  if  they  are  success- 
ful they  are  given  a  few  mounts.  They  become 
jockeys  quickly  if  they  have  any  ability,  .but  the 
average  life  of  the  first-class  jockey  is  limited  to  two 
years  at  the  most,  and  then  the  toboggan  slide  and 
the  downward  path,  and  then  forever  after  pointed 
out  as  a  "has  been." 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

CELEBRITIES  OF  THE  RACE  TRACK. 

"LUCKY"  BALDWIN. 

E.  J.,  or,  as  he  was  familiarly  named,  "Lucky" 
Baldwin,  was  one  of  the  few  square  racing  men  con- 
tributed by  California  to  the  turf  magnates. 

At  an  early  day  he  kept  a  livery  stable  in  San 
Francisco,  and  in  the  palmy  days  of  the  Comstock 
mines  he  acquired  a  fortune  by  fortunate  specula- 
tion in  buying  and  selling  stocks.  His  ambition  was 
to  own  a  stock  ranch  and  a  racing  stable ;  and  in  the 
spring  of  1874  he  proceeded  to  gratify  it. 

While  en  route  to  the  Gold  Mountain  mine  in  San 
Bernardino  county  he  was  driven  through  the 
Rancho  Santa  Anita.  Its  scenic  beauty  delighted 
him,  its  possibilities  of  development  enthused  him. 

"Say,"  he  remarked ;  "this  certainly  looks  like 
home  to  me.    This  is  where  I'm  a-goin'  to  live." 

He  meant  it.  Inquiry  showed  the  owners  of  the 
ranch  to  be  Cohn  and  Newmark,  purchasers  from 
the  original  grantee,  an  American  named  Dalton. 
Cohn  and  Newmark  were  at  the  time  overloaded 
with  properties  and  the  purchase  of  the  Rancho 
Santa  Anita  seemed  an  easy  matter. 

In  his  usual  direct  manner  Baldwin  called  upon 
Cohn  and  offered  him  $150,000  cash.  Cohn  hemmed 
and  hawed  and  asked  for  $175,000. 

175 


176  Easy  Money. 

Baldwin'  was  not  a  man  to  haggle.  He  walked 
out  of  the  office,  but  he  could  not  dismiss  the  rancho 
from  his  mind.  When  he  wanted  a  thii^g  he  wanted 
it  so  badly  that  he  usually  got  it  and  was  never  con- 
tent until  he  had  exhausted  every  resource.  So, 
after  a  few  days  he  decided  to  pay  Colin  his  price. 
He  sought  the  owner  and  said,  without  preliminary 
conversation : 

"I'll  take  the  property  at  your  figure." 

Cohn  smiled  a  complacent  smile  and  rubbed  his 
hands. 
."My  figure,"  he  remarked  blandly,  "is  $200,000.' 

Again  Baldv/in  walked  away,  lurious  this  time. 
He  decided  to  give  up  all  thought  of  the  Rancho 
Santa  Anita.  But  he  could  not.  The  more  he  de- 
cided to  give  it  up,  the  more  he  knew  that  he  must 
own  this  property  at  any  cost. 

So  he  burned  his  bridge  behind  him  by  giving  his 
attorney  the  following  instructions:  "Get  the 
Rancho  Santa  Anita  at  any  price." 

The  lawyer  went  to  see  Cohn.  The  latter  smiled 
even  more  blandly  than  before,  and  mentioned 
$225,000. 

"Done,"  said  Baldwin's  agent,  poking  a  certified 
check  for  $50,000  at  the  astonished  owner.  "You 
won't  get  another  chance  to  raise  me." 

Thus  "Lucky"  Baldwin  acquired  the  Santa  Anita 
ranch.  It  then  contained  about  8500  acres,  almost 
entirely  improved.  He  made  it  a  paradise  during 
his  tenure.    Also  he  had  his  revenge.    Twelve  years 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  177 

after  he  bought  it  from  Cohn  and  Newmark,  Bald- 
win was  approached  by  Newmark  with  a  request  to 
sell  back  twenty  acres.  He  refused  at  the  time,  but 
later  sought  out  Newmark  and  said  that  lie  had  re- 
considered his  decision. 

"I'll  sell  you  100  acres  at  the  rate  at  which  I  re- 
fused to  sell  you  twenty,"  said  Baldwin. 

"What  rate  is  that?"  asked  Newmark. 

"Two  thousand  dollars  an  acre,"  replied  Baldwin. 

Newmark  threw  up  his  hands. 

"Great  Heavens!"  he  exclaimed.  "Why,  at  that 
rate  I  would  pay  you  back  for  100  acres  what  you 
paid  me  for  8500." 

"Exactly,"  agreed  Baldwin,  "and  you'll  make 
mone}'  at  that."     Newmark  did  not  buy. 

Soon  after  he  acquired  the  Rancho  Santa  Anita, 
Baldwin  purchased  adjoining  property  amounting, 
with  his  original  purchase,  to  50,000  acres ;  so  that 
he  had  an  eighteen-mile  drive  from  one  end  to  the 
other  of  his  possessions.  The  land  was  mostly 
splendidly  fertile  and  Baldwin  developed  its  agricul- 
tural possibilities  until  he  was  in  receipt  of  a  princely 
income  therefrom. 

Three  years  later,  in  1877,  Baldwin  began  the 
purchase  of  blooded  stallions  and  mares;  and  in  a 
few  years  he  owned  the  largest  and  finest  racing 
stable  in  America.  He  scoured  the  world  for  the 
best  trainers  and  jockeys,  and  paid  the  jockeys  as 
high  as  $10,000  a  year,  and  the  trainers  as  high  as 
$8000  a  year.     He  won  many  noted  races. 

(12) 


178  Easy  Money. 

As  he  grew  older  he  became  stingy  and  employed 
cheaper  men,  who  played  havoc  with  his  stud  and 
caused  him  serious  losses ;  for  he  was  a  plunger  by 
instinct  and  habit  and  would  back  his  own  horses 
for  any  amount  that  he  could  get  placed  on  them. 

He  had  several  lawsuits  with  women  who  claimed 
to  be  his  common-law  wives,  and  their  offspring  are 
now  engaged  in  a  dispute  over  his  estate. 

He  died  in  April,  1909,  leaving  property  valued  at 
twenty  million  dollars. 

The  entanglements  of  "Lucky"  Baldwin  with 
women  is  at  this  writing  being  evidenced  by  the 
trial  in  the  Superior  Court  of  Los  Angeles,  of  a  pro- 
ceeding instituted  to  break  his  will.  The  suit  was 
instituted  and  is  being  tried  in  behalf  of  Beatrice 
Anita  Baldwin,  the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Lillian  Ashley 
Turnbull. 

The  contest  is  based  on  the  allegation  that  Beat- 
rice, who  is  a  minor,  is  the  daughter  of  "Lucky" 
Baldwin,  and  the  offspring  of  a  common-law  mar- 
riage between  him  and  the  mother  of  the  child. 
Eminent  counsel  are  employed  on  both  sides,  the 
contest  waxes  warm,  the  millions  at  stake  lend  en- 
thusiasm and  ardor  to  the  proceeding,  and  skeletons 
from  the  closet  of  "Lucky"  Baldwin  are  being 
brought  forth  and  rattled  in  public  view. 

When  Mr.  Baldwin  was  alive  he  successfully  de- 
feated an  action  instituted  by  the  mother  of  the 
child  in  whose  behalf  the  present  litigation  was  in- 
stituted.   Were  he  living  at  this  time  his  indomita- 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  179 

ble  will  and  energy  would  doubtless  weigh  heavily 
against  the  contestant.  He  never  surrendered  to 
money  demands  made  by  men  or  women,  if  he 
thought   they   were   unjust. 

THOMAS  H.  WILLIAMS. 

Thomas  H.  Williams,  familiarly  known  as 
"Tom"  Williams,  has  for  years  been  the  predomi- 
nant figure  in  race-horse  circles  on  the  Pacific 
Coast.  He  has  at  all  times  controlled  and  practic- 
ally owned  the  Emeryville,  Tanforan  and  Ingle- 
side  race  tracks,  located  in  the  vicinity  of  San 
Francisco.  W'illiams  is  the  president  and  also  con- 
trols the  Pacific  Jockey  Club.  With  this  position  he 
is  in  undisputed  power  over  the  racing  situation 
in  California  and  other  Pacific  Coast  States. 

As  president  of  the  Pacific  Jockey  Club  he  is 
able  to  dictate  dates  for  holding  racing  meetings 
at  any  point  on  the  Pacific  Coast,  and  with  this 
power  he  has  throttled  and  practically  suppressed 
racing  at  the  Santa  Anita  track,  Los  Angeles. 

Williams  had  money  with  which  to  start  his 
career  as  an  owner  of  horses  and  race  tracks,  and 
an  all-around  gambler. 

The  fight  to  suppress  racing  in  California  has 
been  a  heated  and  long  contested  one.  Williams 
and  the  political  machine  of  the  Southern  Pacific 
Railroad  Company  made  a  combination  that  was 
invincible  until  the  session  of  the  legislature  of 
California  held  in  1909. 


180  Easy  Money. 

In  the  election  preceding  that  session  of  the  legis- 
lature, an  issue  was  squarely  made  in  the  election 
of  members  as  to  whether  they  would  vote  for  or 
against  a  bill  prohibiting  betting  on  horse  races  in 
California.  The  people  were  aroused  to  the  nefari- 
ous condition  in  the  State  created  by  the  operation 
of  race  tracks  in  the  vicinity  of  Los  Angeles  and 
San  Francisco. 

The  combination  between  Williams  and  the 
Southern  Pacific  Railroad  political  machine  was 
overcome,  and  a  bill  prohibiting  betting  on  horse 
races  in  California  was  enacted  by  the  legislature 
and  promptly  signed  by  Governor  Gillette. 

In  this  memorable  fight  by  the  people  of  the 
State  in  behalf  of  this  bill  special  credit  should  be 
given  to  Mr.  xA-rthur  Letts,  president  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association  of  Los  Angeles,  and 
to  the  Los  Angeles  Express,  which  was  practically 
the  only  paper  in  the  State  that  fearlessly  and  en- 
thusiastically denounced  race-horse  gambling,  race- 
track owners  and  their  evil  influence. 

Williams  has  at  all  times  been  a  combination 
actor  in  horse-race  matters.  He  has  owned  a  race 
track,  owned  horses  which  were  run  on  that  track, 
ridden  by  jockeys  under  contract  with  him,  and  at 
the  same  time  was  interested  in  books  which  were 
taking  bets  on  the  races.  What  chance  had  the 
betting  public? 

Williams  is  a  big  bettor  and  a  good  loser.  He 
is  staunch  to  his  friends,  and  a  man  of  great  energy 
and  determination. 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  181 

AUGUST  BELMONT. 

A  prominent  and  spectacular  figure  in  the  race- 
track world  is  August  Belmont,  the  New  York 
millionaire.  He  and  James  R.  Keene  were  the 
wealth  and  brains  against  the  long  contest  by  the 
people  of  New  York  to  suppress  gambling  on  horse 
races  in  that  State. 

Mr.  Belmont's  stable  of  horses  has  been  known 
throughout  the  world.  He  has  owned  some  of  the 
best.  He  has  been  interested  in  race-tracks,  but 
not  in  bookmaking.  He  has  been  a  splendid,  gen- 
uine and  gentlemanly  sport,  who  loves  the  beauti- 
ful horse,  and  thrives  on  the  excitement  of  the  race- 
track. 

At  this  writing  the  charges  of  bribery  against 
certain  members  of  the  New  York  legislature  are 
under  investigation,  and  Mr.  Belmont  and  other 
millionaires  have  been  called  to  testify  as  to  the 
expenditure  of  money  by  them  and  others  sup- 
posed to  be  associated  with  them,  for  the  purpose 
of  defeating  the  recent  statute  enacted  in  New 
York  prohibiting  betting  on  horse  races ;  a  piece 
of  legislation  pressed  to  success  by  the  valiant  fight 
of  Ex-Governor  Hughes. 

Betting  on  horse  races  in  New  York  is  now  prac- 
tically suppressed,  and  Mr.  Belmont,  Mr.  Keene 
and  other  millionaire  owners  of  race  horses  will 
have  to  seek  foreign  territory  in  which  to  indulge 
their  pleasure  in  such  lines. 


182  Easy  Money. 

S.   C.  HILDRETH. 

If  an  honest  man  is  the  noblest  work  of  God,  an 
honest  race-horse  owner  is  the  scarcest.  An  honest 
owner  loves  his  horse.  Yovi  could  not  bribe  him 
to  unduly  or  inadequately  exercise  the  animal,  or 
over-feed  or  under-feed  him,  or  to  neglect  him,  or 
to  dope  him,  if  you  olTered  him  all  the  money  of 
all  the  bookmakers  on  earth. 

Sam  Hildreth  is  such  a  man.  He  has  probably 
trained  and  owned  more  winners  than  any  other 
man  on  the  American  turf.  He  was  the  owner  of 
"Fitzherbert,"  "Rapid  Water,"  "Uncle"  and  other 
famous  horses.  He  always  trained  and  ran  his 
horses  to  win.  He  loves  to  give  the  people  who  bet 
on  them  a  chance  for  their  money.  The  crooked 
bookmakers  fear  him  as  a  skulking  "yallar"  dog 
fears  a  brindle  bull  terrier;  for  all  know  that  his 
horses  will  be  run  to  win. 

Mr.  Hildreth  is  not  a  tin  horn  sport.  He  is  a 
square  business  man.  He  is  a  gambler  who  never 
loses  his  nerve.  He  is  always  willing  to  take  an 
equal  chance,  and  he  never  did  a  crooked  thing  in 
all  his  life.  Were  there  more  men  of  the  type  of 
Hildreth  racing  would  be  in  better  standing  than  it 
is  today. 

Mr.  Hildreth  was  at  one  time  the  trainer  for 
"Lucky"  Baldwin. 

BARNET   SCHREIBER. 
Barney  Schreiber  is  one  of  the  most  spectacular 
characters  in  the  race-horse  business  in  the  world. 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  183 

Less  than  twenty  years  ago  Barney  was  a  porter  in 
Samuel  C.  Davis'  dry  goods  store  at  St.  Louis.  He 
later  became  a  twenty-five  and  fifty-cent  bettor  in 
Pool  Alley.  He  accumulated  a  little  money  and 
then  went  to  booking  on  the  big  race  tracks,  and 
met  with  phenomenal  success,  and  soon  branched 
out  as  a  race-horse  owner. 

Schreiber  has  owned  as  many  good  race  horses  as 
any  other  man  on  the  turf.  Among  them  was  the 
mous  "Jack  Atkin."  He  also  owned  the  great  sub- 
urban winner,  "Nealon,"  and  the  great  sire  "Sain." 

Schreiber  has  owned  more  interests  in  the  various 
race  tracks  throughout  the  United  States  than  any 
other  man  in  America,  except  John  Condon. 

The  most  notable  feature  about  Barney  is  his 
abilit}^  to  make  book  without  any  cash  in  the  cash- 
ier's department.  I  have  known  him  to  book  for 
days  on  the  public's  money  and  stand  off  the  win- 
ning bettors  from  day  to  day,  until  he  finally  suc- 
ceeded in  making  a  winning,  when  he  would  always 
settle  up.    His  credit  on  the  turf  is  the  best. 

The  present  adverse  laws  to  racing  will  necessar- 
ily force  Schreiber  to  sell  his  Bridgeton  Stock  Farm 
and  ship  his  horses  to  France  or  some  other  foreign 
country. 

JOHNNIE  POWERS. 

Johnnie  Powers  is  one  of  the  foremost  trainers  of 
race  horses  in  the  world.  He  is  a  man  who  under- 
stands thoroughly  the  formation  of  a  horse  and 
everything  pertaining  to  his  welfare,  care  and  train- 


184  Easy  Money. 

ing.  At  present  he  is  training  the  great  "Jack  At- 
kin,"  and  is  the  best  man  on  the  turf  with  a  crippled 
horse. 

Johnnie  has  trained  for  Corrigan,  the  most  exact- 
ing owner  on  a  race  track.  He  has  trained  for  the 
large  and  small  stables  and  treated  them  all  alike. 

Powers  was  my  trainer  for  several  seasons.  He 
absolutely  refused  to  participate  in  cheating  in  any 
form. 

Among  the  horses  Powers  trained  for  me  were 
"Tartan,"  "Inglethrift,"  "Fred  Hornbeck"  and 
"Judge  Nelson,"  all  well  known  to  patrons  of  the 
turf. 

While  Powers  was  my  trainer  I  have  had  horses 
pulled,  but  wholly  without  his  knowledge.  I  sin- 
cerely trust  that  whatever  suspicion  my  acts  may 
have  caused  to  be  cast  on  Johnnie  will  be  removed 
by  the  sincere  declaration  that  he  refused  always 
to  be  a  party  to  a  fixed  race.  I  want  to  put  him  be- 
fore the  public  in  his  proper  and  true  light,  as  one 
of  the  few  honest  race-horse  trainers  in  the  world. 

"PITTSBURG   PHIL"    SMITH. 

"Pittsburg  Phil"  Smith  was  the  most  phenomenal 
man  that  ever  operated  on  race  tracks.  Starting 
without  any  money,  "Pittsburg  Phil,"  by  close  at- 
tention and  hard  work,  accumulated  a  little  money 
in  the  pool-rooms  of  Chicago,  and  then  went  on  the 
track  as  an  outside  gambler. 

Through  his  knowledge  of  horses,  and  knowing 
the  thieving  operations  of  bookmakers,  horse  own- 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  185 

ers  and  jockeys,  he  would  take  advantage  of  them 
and  usually  beat  the  thieves  to  the  prize.  He  w^ould 
never  make  a  bet  until  the  horses  had  left  the  pad- 
dock to  go  to  the  post,  and  would  frequently  bet  on 
two  horses  in  one  race. 

It  was  his  individuality  and  his  knowlegde  of  what 
was  transpiring  among  the  crooked  jockeys,  book- 
makers and  owners  that  enabled  "Pittsburg  Phil"  to 
accumulate  three  or  four  million  dollars. 

He  was  a  man  greatly  feared  by  the  bookmakers 
and  pool-room  proprietors,  and  probably  the  only 
one  that  ever  bested  the  game  continually  and  died 
a  wealthy  man. 

ED.    CORRIGAN. 

Ed.  Corrigan  was  at  one  time  the  largest  race- 
track proprietor  and  race-horse  owner  in  the  Middle 
West.  He  owned  the  Hawthorne  Race  Track  at 
Chicago,  and  a  few  years  ago  was  a  millionaire,  but 
is  today  racing  a  small  stable  of  horses  for  a  mere 
existence. 

Corrigan  was  one  of  the  characters  of  the  turf. 
He  always  wanted  to  win.  He  was  very  loyal  to  his 
friends  and  bitter  toward  his  enemies.  He  gave  the 
Cella-Adler-Tillis  combination  the  greatest  fight  of 
their  lives,  and  he  was  the  only  man  owning  race- 
track interests  in  the  Middle  West  that  had  nerve 
enough  to  fight  John  Condon. 

Corrigan  has  developed  some  of  the  best  jockeys 
and  best  horses  of  any  owner  in  America.  One 
thing  that  I  must  say  in  iavor  of  Corrigan  is,  that  he 


186  Easy  Money. 

would  never  make  book  and  race  horses.  While  he 
was  a  plunger,  he  was  a  plunger  who  did  not  look 
for  the  best  of  it  continually,  but  would  never  over- 
look an  opportunity  to  break  at  least  even  in  his 
betting  operations. 

Corrigan  began  his  racing  career  at  Kansas  City. 
He  is  absolutely  fearless  and  has  had  many  personal 
encounters.  He  abused  a  reporter  on  the  Kansas 
City  Times  many  years  ago,  when  Doctor  Mumford 
was  its  editor.  The  Times  assailed  Corrigan  in  its 
columns  vehemently.  Mumford  was  known  to  be 
fearless  and  dead  game.  Physically  he  was  weak 
and  hence  was  always  armed.  Corrigan  and  Mum- 
ford met  in  the  Long  building,  corner  of  Main  and 
Missouri  avenue,  coming  face-  to  face  suddenly 
Mumford  drew  his  pistol,  but  Corrigan  quickly 
knocked  him  down,  grabbed  the  pistol,  and  holding 
Mumford  down,  said :  "You  see  I  can  kill  you  and 
ought  to."  Then,  after  hesitating,  let  Mumford  up, 
handed  him  his  pistol,  and  coolly  turned  and  walked 
away. 

PHIL.  T.  CHINN. 

Phil.  T.  Chinn  is  the  son  of  the  illustrious  Jack 
Chinn  of  Kentucky.  Phil  was  raised  on  a  race  track. 
His  father  was  one  of  the  old-day  starters,  and  Phil 
became  a  race-horse  trainer  as  soon  as  he  was  old 
enough  to  understand  what  a  race  track  was. 

When  Colonel  Chinn  retired  from  the  activities 
of  the  turf,  Phil  took  up  the  management  and  train- 
ing of  the  Chinn  horses. 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  187 

He  has  just  recently  been  ruled  off  the  turf  in 
Canada  for  supposed  crooked  work. 

Chinn  is  known  as  a  genial,  jolly  good  fellow, 
and  is  liberal  to  a  fault  with  his  money.  He  has 
developed  some  first-class  jockeys  in  his  day.  He 
is  like  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  present-day  horsemen, 
and  almost  compelled  to  be  that  way  to  make  both 
ends  meet,  and  is  always  looking  for  the  best  of  it. 
TIM   SULLIVAN. 

Big  Tim  Sullivan  is  one  of  the  best-hearted  men 
that  ever  lived.  He  has  owned  race  tracks  and  race 
horses  and  never  knowingly  took  advantage  of  any 
one.  He  found  the  race-horse  game  too  crooked 
for  him  and  retired,  after  losing  an  enormous  sum 
of  money  as  a  race-horse  owner. 

Sullivan  has,  perhaps,  helped  and  befriended 
more  broken  down  race-horse  owners,  trainers, 
bookmakers  and  jockeys  than  all  of  the  other  race- 
track proprietors  put  together. 

GEORGE  C.  BENNETT. 

George  C.  Bennett,  of  Memphis,  made  his  money 
as  a  bookmaker,  pool-room  proprietor,  race-track 
owner  and  by  racing  a  stable  of  horses. 

Bennett  was  one  of  the  largest  owners  in  the  New 
Orleans  Crescent  City  Jockey  Club;  also  in  the 
Montgomery  Race  Track  at  Memphis,  and  had  as 
high  as  five  different  bookmakers  operating  for  him 
at  one  time.  He  is  a  man  who  is  cool  and  calculat- 
ing and  has  never  been  a  plunger,  but  a  conserva- 
tive percentage  bookmaker  and  very  careful  in  his 
operations. 


188  Easy  Monej^ 

I  never  heard  Mr.  Bennett's  name  connected 
with  anything  crooked  on  the  turf.  He  has  retired 
from  the  race-horse  game  and  is  devoting  his  late 
years  to  the  real-estate  business  in  Memphis. 

W.  E.  APPLE'GATE. 

Colonel  W.  E.  Applegate  is  one  of  the  old-school 
bookmakers  and  race-horse  owners  who  are  gradu- 
ally disappearing  from  the  turf  l^ecause  of  the  gam- 
bling and  corrupt  methods  of  the  present-day  book- 
maker. 

In  his  day  the  Colonel  has  owned  some  very  fast 
horses  and  has  booked  on  every  race  track  in 
America,  in  addition  to  owning  interests  in  pool- 
rooms throughout  the  country, 

JAMES   R.   KEENE. 

James  R.  Keene,  the  multi-millionaire  stock 
broker  of  New  York,  and  race-track  proprietor,  has 
for  years  been  a  prominent  race-horse  owner  in 
America  and  England.  Mr.  Keene's  horses  for 
years  have  been  the  feature  of  the  eastern  tracks. 
He  has  always  had  the  very  best,  and  holds  the 
world's  record  for  winning  the  largest  sum  ever 
won  by  one  individual  owner  in  one  season — ^the 
season  of  1908  when  his  horses  won  the  enormous 
amount  of  $379,000. 

Keene  has  fought  for  the  interests  of  race-track 
owners,  and  was  probably  the  bitterest  foe  that 
Governor  Hughes  had  to  contend  with  in  the  lat- 
ter's  efforts  to  prohibit  race-track  gambling  in  the 
State  of  New  York. 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  189 

Mr.  Keene,  as  all  race-track  proi)rietors,  abso- 
lutely knows  of  the  thieving  methods  of  book- 
makers, some  horse  owners  and  jockeys,  and  the 
crooked  work  carried  on  by  them. 

He  is  a  great  lover  of  the  sport,  and  also  the 
almighty  dollar.  He  will  not  give  up  the  latter 
for  the  former. 

LOUIS  A.  CELLA. 

Louis  A.  Cella,  of  St.  Louis,  was  the  nominal 
head  of  the  Cella-Adler-Tillis  combination.  Be- 
cause of  his  wars  against  Ed.  Corrigan,  his  corrupt 
way  of  racing  horses,  making  book  and  operating 
race  tracks,  he  has  had  more  to  do  with  the  disrepu- 
table methods  of  race  tracks  than  any  other  man. 

Cella  has  played  the  dual  role  of  owner,  book- 
maker and  race-track  proprietor  at  one  time.  What 
chance  has  the  poor  public  against  such  a  combi- 
nation? 

TOMMY   GRIFFIN. 

Tommie  Grififin  is  known  as  "The  Man  with  the 
Halter."  A  shrewd  judge  of  horseflesh  he  has, 
through  the  claiming  process  or  running  up  other 
people's  horses  in  selling  races,  made  more  ene- 
mies than  any  other  man  on  the  American  turf.  He 
is  considered  the  best  judge  of  two-year-olds  in 
America. 

Griffin  has  never  taken  a  mean  advantage  of  any 
poor  owner,  in  his  claiming  or  selling  wars.  It  has 
always  been  against  the  millitmaire  owner. 


190  Easy  Money. 

J.  E.  MADDEN, 

J.  E.  Madden  has  for  fifteen  years  been  consid- 
ered one  of  the  most  successful  trainers  of  race 
horses  in  America.  Madden  is  a  hard  worker  and 
excellent  judge  of  horses.  He  seldom  bets,  and 
never  except  when  he  has  the  best  of  it. 

Madden  is  hard  and  harsh  with  jockeys. 
HARRY  PAYNE  WHITNEY. 

Harry  Payne  Whitney  is  a  young  man  who  has 
had  rather  bitter  experiences  on  the  American  turf. 
He  has  lost  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
through  the  cheating  methods  of  other  owners  and 
jockeys  and  bookmakers,  and  has  not  awakened 
yet.  He  is  still  giving  up  money  left  him  by  his 
famous  father  to  the  bookmakers. 
J.  W.  BROOKS. 

J.  W.  Brooks,  familiarly  known  as  "Jim  Brooks," 
is,  in  my  opinion,  one  of  the  best  handicappers  and 
race-track  secretaries.  An  absolutely  honest,  fear- 
less race-track  official,  who,  on  account  of  his  re- 
fusal to  do  as  Tom  Williams  directed,  lost  his 
position  as  manager  and  secretary  of  the  Los  An- 
geles race  track. 

Mr.  Brooks  had  nerve  enough  to  defy  Mr.  Wil- 
liams and  his  cheating  methods,  but  did  not  have 
the  political  power  to  hold  his  position  when  Wil- 
liams withdrew  his  support. 

There  is  not  a  closer  student  of  form  nor  a 
keener  detective  of  wrong  among  horse  owners, 
bookmakers  and  jockeys  than  Jim   Brooks;  and  it 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  191 

was  a  great  loss  to  the  honest  lovers  of  the  sport 
when  he  was  forced  ont  of  his  position  by  Tom 
Williams  of  Oakland,  and  the  controller  for  years 
of  racing  in  California. 

WILLIAM   WALKER. 

William  Walker,  better  known  as  "Red"  Walker, 
is  a  man  who  deserves  great  credit  for  his  rise  in 
the  turf  world.  By  his  own  hard  work  he  pro- 
gressed his  way  up  from  a  stable  foreman  to  one 
of  the  best  trainers  and  largest  race-horse  owners 
in  America. 

There  is  no  angle  of  the  game  that  "Red"  doesn't 
know.  He  has  had  every  phase  of  it  from  jockey 
to  bookmaker  and  owner.  His  success  has  been  in 
training  his  own  horses. 

He  is  a  man  much  feared  because  he  will  run  up 
the  price  of  horses  that  are  in  selling  races;  but  is 
much  liked  by  the  majority  of  poor  owners  on  that 
account.  It  makes  no  difference  to  W'alker  whether 
a  man  is  a  millionaire  or  not ;  if  his  horse  is  in  too 
cheap  and  wins,  Walker  will  boost  him. 

MIKE   DWYER. 

Mike  Dwyer  is  one  of  the  famous  Dwyer  Bros. 
Beginning  as  a  butcher,  he  became  a  millionaire  as 
a  bettor  on  and  owner  of  race  horses. 

Dwyer  was  known  as  the  nerviest  gambler  we 
have  ever  had.  His  hobby  was  betting  on  favorites 
or  short-price  horses;  which  eventually  broke  him. 


192  Easy  Money. 

LEO  MAYER. 
Leo  Mayer,  who  has  just  recently  been  indicted 
by  the  United  States  authorities  for  conspiracy  on 
account  of  his  bucket-shop  operations,  graduated 
into  the  racing  game  on  the  old  night  tracks  at  St. 
Louis.  He  went  to  Chicago  and  became  quite  a 
plunger,  and  for  a  time  controlled  the  foreign  book 
on  the  race  tracks  there. 

MONTE  TENNIS. 

Monte  Tennis  is  one  of  the  late  day  gamblers, 
and  controls  all  of  the  hand-book  business  in 
Chicago. 

Tennis  at  one  time  owned  a  small  stable  of  race 
horses,  but  he  did  not  care  to  take  a  chance  with 
the  racing  game,  so  sold  out  and  went  back  to  the 
hand-book  graft,  which  was  surer  of  large  and 
steady  profits. 

BOOTS  DURNELL. 

Boots  Durnell,  one  of  the  notorious  gamblers  on 
race  tracks,  was  formerly  a  partner  of  Emel  Herz. 

Herz  and  Durnell  owned  the  great  race  horse, 
"McChesney,"  and  made  many  a  clean-up  with 
him. 

Durnell  and  Herz  finally  went  broke,  and  Durnell 
started  out  as  a  free  lance  with  the  backing  of 
Gates,  Drake  and  others. 

Durnell's  operations  were  too  raw  even  for 
Gates,  and  after  trimming  Gates  for  $50,000  he  be- 
came virtually  an  outcast  upon  the  race  tracks,  and 
is  now  among  the  members  of  the  "Down  and  Out 
Club." 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  193 

JOE    YEAGER. 

Joe  Yeager  is  one  of  the  best-liked  men  among 
the  plungers.  His  credit  is  above  par,  and  he  has 
never  failed  to  meet  an  obligation. 

He  is  in  a  class  by  himself  when  it  comes  to  win- 
ning twenty-five  thousand,  fifty  thousand  or  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  on  a  shoe  string. 

He  has  probably  accomplished  this  feat  twenty 
times  in  his  life.     He  will  stake  his  all  on  one  bet, 
if  he  thinks  he  is  right ;  and  he  is  usually  right. 
ROY  OFFUTT. 

Roy  Ofifutt,  of  Kansas  City,  is  a  close  student  of 
form,  a  sharp  manipulator,  but  a  poor  judge  of 
horse-flesh. 

Offutt,  like  the  rest,  has  had  his  ups  and  downs. 
One  notable  example  was  at  Hot  Springs,  Arkan- 
sas, where  he  was  broke  financially,  but  was  wealthy 
with  nerve. 

He  had  a  few  diamonds  which  he  pawned  with 
Bohl,  the  pawnbroker,  and,  going  to  the  race  track 
the  same  day,  was  successful  in  betting  on  the 
ponies  with  the  money. 

He  made  probably  $200,000  in  a  year. 

For  the  last  year  or  two  he  has  been  unsuccessful. 
CHARLIE   CASH. 

Charlie  Cash  was  the  blackboard  wiper  for  Leo 
Mayer. 

Charlie,  feeling  indisposed  one  day,  resigned  his 
position  and  started  betting  with  two  dollars. 

If  I  am  not  mistaken  his  first  bet  was  made  on  a 
horse  named  "Senator  Caldwell,"  which  bet  he  won, 

(13) 


194  Easy  Money. 

and  he  increased  the  two  dollars  to  over  one  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  the  first  season. 

At  present  he  is  member  twenty-three  of  the 
"Down  and  Out  Club." 

PAT   O'DONNELL. 

A  noted  gambling  character  is  Pat  O'Donnell, 
alias  "Pat,  the  Waterboy." 

Ten  years  ago  Pat's  whole  stock  in  trade  was  a 
bucket  of  water,  a  dipper,  and  a  smiling  counte- 
nance. He  was  selling  water  to  bookmakers  and 
clerks  at  the  St.  Louis  race  track  for  five  cents  per 
drink. 

Pat  saved  his  nickels,  and  in  a  short  time  accumu- 
lated a  bank  roll,  and  one  day  startled  the  natives 
by  betting  Ed  Fitzgerald,  who  was  making  the  com- 
bination book  for  L.  A.  Cella,  $100  on  a  jumping 
race. 

Fitzgerald,  in  heartfelt  sympathy  for  Pat,  advised 
him  not  to  bet  his  money;  but  Pat  would  not  listen 
to  the  advice  and  bet  his  $100  against  $1000  and 
won  :  "Eva  Moe"  first,  "ZuiTalig"  second,  and  "Very 
Light"  third. 

Needless  to  say  Pat  cashed  the  ticket.  Fitzgerald 
and  the  Cella  combination  could  not  understand 
where  Pat  received  his  information ;  but  Pat,  bub- 
bling over  with  enthusiasm,  enlightened  them  by 
saying  that  he  had  seen  Brolaski  and  some  of  the 
steeple-chase  jockeys  with  their  heads  together 
framing  up  the  race,  and  that  he  only  followed 
Brolaski's  advice. 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  195 

Pat  forthwith  lost  his  position  as  water  boy;  but 
what  did  he  care.  He  had  eleven  hundred  simo- 
leons,  and  immediately  became  a  plunger,  and  then 
a  bookmaker,  and  is  one  of  the  shrewdest  men  on 

the  turf  today. 

"CHICAGO"  O'BRIEN. 

O'Brien,  known  to  the  racing  underworld  and 
upperworld  as  "Chicago"  O'Brien,  emerged  from  a 
condition  of  chronic  impecuniosity  by  making  small 
bets  that  horses  ranking  as  favorites  would  run 
third  in  the  race. 

With  his  accumulations  from  this  source  he  em- 
barked in  the  business  of  bribing  jockeys  who  were 
riding  contending  horses  to  so  guide  their  steeds  as 
to  assist  the  horse  that  he  was  betting  on  to  run 
into  third  position. 

In  this  way  the  thrifty  and  shifty  Irishman  has 
accumulated  half  a  million  dollars.  He  takes  no 
chance.  He  never  makes  a  bet  until  after  the 
horses  have  left  the  paddock  and  the  race  is  all  fixed. 
Then  he  plunges  on  the  fixed  race. 
FRANK  SHAW. 

Frank  Shaw  was  the  first  race-track  operator  who 
saw  the  possibilities  of  the  percentage  book  along 
legitimate  lines.  He  put  it  in  operation  at  the 
South  Side  race  track,  St.  Louis.  He  was  successful 
with  the  venture,  and  made  money,  notwithstanding 
the  frame-ups  and  fixed  races  that  were  being  run. 
Even  with  the  odds  that  the  horsemen  had  against 
him  in  fixed  races,  Shaw's  percentage  was  so  strong 
that  he  made  money  with  his  books. 


196  Easy  Money. 

Cartwright  of  Nashville  and  Colonel  Applegate  of 
Cincinnati  soon  imitated  Shaw's  percentage  book, 
and,  in  fact,  all  of  the  old  auction-pool  makers,  see- 
ing the  strength  of  Shaw's  game,  followed  his  meth- 
ods, and  most  of  them  became  very  wealthy. 

Shaw  retired  some  few  years  ago  with  a  fortune. 
It  is  to  be  said  in  his  favor  that  he  absolutely  would 
not  listen  to  any  proposition  to  cheat.  His  percent- 
age was  good  enough  without  it. 

He  initiated  the  Cella-Adler-Tillis  combination 
into  the  mysteries  of  the  percentage  book.  With 
their  cheating  methods  in  addition,  they  became 
quite  wealthy. 

Shaw  has  retired  and  quit  the  gambling  business. 
He  was  a  credit  to  the  turf  while  there. 

JIM  DAVIS. 

Jim  Davis  was  one  of  the  best  known  plungers  a 
few  years  ago  on  the  American  turf.  At  present  he 
is  proprietor  of  the  Washington  Annex,  Seattle, 
Wash. 

He  is  one  of  the  few  men  who  had  nerve  enough 
to  fight  Tom  Williams  at  his  own  game.  Williams 
ruled  Davis  off  the  track  because  Davis  succeeded 
in  separating  Williams  and  some  of  his  friends  from 
their  money. 

TOM  SHAW.. 

Tom  Shaw  was  one  of  the  biggest  bookmakers 
and  gamblers  on  the  turf.  He  was  generous  to  a 
fault,  and  probably  gave  a  fortune  away  to  broken- 
down    gamblers    and    race-track    hangers-on.      Hfe 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  197 

never  looked  for  the  worst  of  it,  and  was  always 
willing  to  take  an  equal  break.  He  has  often  been 
accused  of  cheating,  but  the  judges  were  never  able 
to  back  up  their  accusations  with  any  facts,  and  I 
think  most  of  the  accusations  were  made  through 
jealousy. 

I  have  known  Tom  Shaw  to  win  or  lose  $50,000 
on  one  race. 

J.  B.  HAGGIN. 

J.  B.  Haggin  is  the  largest  breeder  of  thorough- 
breds in  the  United  States.  He  never  bets  on  horses, 
but  has  bred  more  winners  than  all  the  other  breed- 
ers combined.  He  is  truly  a  lover  of  the  horse  and 
not  a  gambler.  He  is  now  compelled  to  ship  the 
product  from  his  breeding  farms  to  South"  America, 
France  and  England,  because  of  the  suppression  in 
America  of  horse  racing. 

RILEY  GRANNON. 

To  show  the  utter  impossibility  of  beating  the 
race-horse  game,  I  will  recall  the  history  of  a  few 
of  the  "has  beens"  of  the  American  turf. 

Riley  Grannon,  who  started  his  career,  as  an  ele- 
vator boy  in  Louisville,  Kentucky,  commenced 
to  play  the  races  with  moderate  success  for  the  first 
year,  and  gradually  accumulated  a  little  money  by 
sharp  methods  of  obtaining  information. 

He  at  one  time  was  quoted  as  being  worth  two 
million  dollars.  He  lasted  for  five  or  six  years. 
Then  he  hit  the  toboggan  slide  on  the  downward 
path  and  died  at  Goldfield,  Nevada,  in  a  gambling 
house,  broke. 


198  Easy  Money. 

There  never  was  a  pleasanter  personality  among 
race-track  gamblers  than  this  man.  He  had  the  ex- 
perience of  winning  and  losing  a  fortune. 

STEVE  L'HOMMEDIEU. 

One  of  the  picturesque  gamblers  of  the  American 
turf  is  Steve  L'Hommedieu.  He  is  a  man  of  many 
ups  and  downs.  He  has  won  and  lost  thousands 
upon  thousands,  and  is  today  one  of  the  "has  beens" 
of  the  American  turf.  A  whole-souled,  hale-and- 
hearty,  well-met,  good  fellow — when  he  has  money. 
A  great  spender,  and  a  man  who  has  probably  given 
away  in  his  life  time  one  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
Today  he  is  virtually  broke. 

CHRIS    SMITH. 

One  of  the  nerviest  little  plungers  that  ever 
stepped  upon  a  race  track  is  Chris  Smith.  He  is  a 
man  who  will  run  a  twenty-dollar  bill  into  a  million 
and  a  half,  if  things  continue  to  come  his  way. 

He  owned  one  of  the  finest  race-horse  stables  in 
the  country,  and  was  the  owner  of  the  great  mare 
"Yo  Tambien." 

At  one  time  Chris'  name  was  in  every  sporting 
paper  in  America.  Everybody  around  a  race  track 
was  trying  to  find  out  what  Chris  was  betting  on, 
and  for  a  year  or  two  it  was  almost  impossible  for 
him  to  lose  a  bet.  But  finally  he  hit  the  toboggan 
with  an  awful  thud,  and  in  a  few  years  was  broke. 

Nowadays  you  never  hear  his  name.  The  friends 
of  his  palmy  days  have  all  left  him,  and  he  is  barely 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  199 

existing  at  the  present  time,  and  living  on  dreams 
of  the  past. 

JOHN  J.  RYAN. 

John  J.  Ryan,  of  get-rich-quick  fame,  is  a  man  of 
big  diamonds  and  fast  automobiles. 

Ryan  started  around  East  St.  Louis  and  St.  Louis 
years  ago,  and  by  his  sharp  operations  in  and  about 
race  tracks  had  an  up-and-down  career.  He  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  E.  J.  Arnold,  and  opened  a  get- 
rich-quick  concern  at  St.  Louis.  During  the  opera- 
tions of  this  establishment  Ryan  was  noted  as  one 
of  the  nerviest  gamblers  on  the  turf;  but  he  was 
gambling  with  other  people's  money. 

^^  hen  the  get-rich-quick  bubble  broke,  Ryan,  con- 
trary to  the  opinion  of  the  people  who  had  invested 
with  him,  failed  without  any  money. 

But  he  had  his  nerve  left.  He  went  to  Chicago 
and  started  betting  on  the  horses  again.  He  tixed 
up  a  few  races  and  was  successful. 

He  then  went  east  and  fixed  some  races  on  the 
eastern  tracks,  and  got  away  with  quite  a  lot  of 
money. 

Finally  he  came  back  to  Latonia,  where  he  was 
beguiled  into  some  traps,  and  lost  nearly  all  his 
money. 

He  is  now  operating  a  brokerage  office  in  Cincin- 
nati. 

E.  J.  ARNOLD. 

During  the  days  of  the  get-rich-quick  boom  along 
race-horse  lines,  E.  J.  Arnold  started  the  company 


200  Easy  Money. 

named  after  himself,  "E.  J.  Arnold  &  Company  of 
Chicago,"  a  co-operative  bookmaking  and  racing 
stable. 

Arnold  was  driven  out  of  Chicago  by  the  city  au- 
thorities and  moved  to  St.  Louis,  and  there  opened 
up  under  the  same  name  in  the  Benoist  building, 
with  Gill  Lumpkin  as  his  office  man,  and  myself  as 
manager  of  the  racing  end  of  it. 

I  remember  distinctly  the  first  few  horses  that  I 
purchased  for  the  firm,  one  in  particular  by  the  name 
of  "Quaker,"  and  another  by  the  name  of  "Man." 
We  cocked  and  primed  them  for  two  killings ;  but 
they  killed  us — that  is,  they  killed  our  pocketbooks. 
in  reality  not  our  pocketbooks,  for  it  was  a  case  of 
other  people's  money  again. 

The  first  bet  that  we  won  of  any  size  was  on  a 
horse  named  "Napoleon  Bonaparte,"  which  animal 
we  purchased  for  five  hundred  dollars.  I  had  Tom 
Miles  at  this  time  as  a  trainer  and  Jockey  Jesse 
Alathews  as  a  rider. 

But  things  did  not  progress  harmoniously  be- 
tween Arnold,  Lumpkin  and  myself,  and  I  quit  the 
firm.  Arnold  and  Lumpkin  went  on  with  their  work 
until  the  spring  of  1903.  They  were  closed  by  a 
fraud  order  of  the  United  States  Government,  and 
Arnold  and  Lumpkin  both  left  the  country.  They 
failed  without  any  money  to  speak  of.  It  had  all 
been  squandered  on  the  race  track,  paid  to  race-track 
owners  for  the  privilege  of  booking,  betting  and 
racing,  and  for  the    enormous    weekly  percentages 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  201 

(hey  were  paying  on  the  money  given  tliem  to  bet 
by  others.    . 

BARNEY  WELLER. 

One  of  the  most  notorious  gamblers  on  the  Amer- 
ican turf  is  Barney  W'eller,  a  man  that  would  take  a 
hundred-thousand-dollar  bet  and  not  "bat  an  eye." 

Barney  has  handled  millions  and  millions  of  dol- 
lars, and  has  paid  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars 
to  race-track  owners  for  the  privilege  of  gambling, 
yet  he  is  broke  today,  and  you  never  even  hear  his 
name  mentioned  in  the  turf  annals. 

It  is  the  same  old  grind,  the  steady  sure-thing  of 
the  race-track  owners  that  has  taken  us  all.  It  is  no 
gambling  with  them.  The  bookmaker  must  pay  so 
much  per  day  for  the  privilege  of  booking.  The  bet- 
tor must  pay  so  much  per  day  for  admission  to  the 
track.  The  grind,  grind,  grind  wears  like  water 
dripping  continually  on  a  stone.  It  would  break  the 
Bank  of  England.  There  is  no  possibility  of  beat- 
ing the  race-horse  game. 

JOHN   W.   GATES. 

One  of  the  most  picturesque  gamblers  in  the 
world  is  John  W.  Gates.  His  advice  alone  would  be 
worth  millions  to  the  young  men  of  the  present  day, 
if  they  would  heed  it. 

In  an  address  made  to  the  churchmen  and  laymen 
at  the  Gulf  District  Methodist  Episcopal  Conference 
in  session  at  Port  Arthur,  Mr.  Gates  gave  a  few 
words  of  wholesome  advice. 


202  Easy  Money. 

He  said :  "Never  play  cards  or  gamble.  A  gam- 
bler once,  a  gambler  always.  Never  bet  on  horse 
races." 

Mr.  Gates,  who  has  been  called  "Bet-You-a-Mill- 
ion  Gates,"  has  sometimes  been  a  terror,  but  very 
often  a  blessing,  to  the  bookmakers. 

Mr.  Gates,  who  is  also  famous  as  a  player  at 
bridge  whist,  said:  "Never  speculate,  either  on  the 
stock  exchange  or  in  the  wheat  pit." 

Without  pretense  to  oratory,  he  delivered  an  ear- 
nest sermon,  and  drew,  as  he  frankly  admitted,  on 
his  own  experiences  and  observations.  He  made  a 
startling  contrast  between  the  get-rich-quick  meth- 
ods of  the  daring  speculator,  who  springs  from 
pauper  to  millionaire  in  a  few  days,  and  the  worthy, 
plodding  farmer  or  conservative  merchant,  who 
reaps  small,  but  sure,  although  slow,  reward. 

I  do  not  suppose  there  is  a  gambling  game  played 
that  Mr.  Gates  is  not  conversant  with.  He,  himself 
is  an  extraordinarily  smart  man,  but  he  has  also 
been  up  against  several  sure-thing  games,  and  has 
been  swindled  many  times. 

It  is  the  same  old  story  of  "come  easy,  go  easy." 
The  intense  excitement  of  gambling  on  a  horse  race 
or  a  card  game  would  make  even  John  W.  Gates 
lose  his  usual  conservativeness  and  plunge  over  the 
limit. 

I  would  like  to  have  the  money  that  Mr.  Gates  has 
lost  playing  the  ponies. 


Celebrities  of  the  Track.  203 

COLONEL   BOB    PATE. 

Colonel  Bob  Pate  of  St.  Louis  was  at  one  time  a 
multi-millionaire,  who  made  most  of  his  money  in 
keno  and  faro  bank  games  around  St.  Louis.  He 
lost  most  of  it  in  a  racing  venture  in  Mexico,  and  is 
today  struggling  to  fill  his  depleted  coffers  by  try- 
ing to  rehabilitate  racing  in  Mexico  City. 

COLONEL   PAT   SHEEDY. 

Colonel  Pat  Sheedy,  known  as  the  "Square  Sport," 
was  probably  the  greatest  wanderlust  among  the 
gamblers  of  the  world.  Sheedy  has  gambled  in 
Monte  Carlo,  Africa,  Australia,  and  in  almost  every 
city  in  the  United  States. 

Sheedy  never  played  the  races.  "It's  a  sucker's 
game,"  he  once  told  the  late  Al  Smith,  who  was  his 
bosom  friend ;  "and,"  said  Sheedy,  "it's  a  game  that 
in  the  end  breaks  everybody  except  the  race-track 
owners.  The  bookmaker  gets  the  bettor's  money, 
and  the  race-track  owners  and  the  faro  bank  proprie- 
tors and  the  poker  rooms  get  the  bookmakers' 
money.  Now,  who  do  you  suppose  gets  the  faro 
bank  and  poker  rooms'  money?  Why,  the  pawn- 
broker.    He  is  the  big  winner  in  the  end." 

It  was  Sheedy  who  originated  betting  on  the 
weather,  which  has  developed  into  quite  a  popular 
pastime  among  Chicago's  sporting  men. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

THE  FIGHT  AGAINST  RACE  TRACKS. 

The  first  effective  ao:itation  against  race-track 
gambling  in  the  East  was  by  Rev.  AA'ilbur  F.  Crafts, 
Supt.  of  the  International  Reform  Bureau,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  In  ]\Iarch,  1903,  the  gamblers  were 
endeavoring  to  have  a  bill  passed  in  Pennsylvania 
to  permit  gambling  on  race  tracks.  They  had  their 
bill  before  the  Legislature,  and  the  House  had  al- 
ready passed  favorably  upon  it,  when  Dr.  Crafts 
took  up  the  fight.  He  succeeded  in  having  Mr.  A. 
J.  Cassatt,  President  of  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad, 
the  State's  most  influential  citizen  in  commerce,  so- 
ciety and  politics,  withdraw  his  name  and  support 
from  the  gambler's  bill. 

Dr.  Crafts  succeeded  on  March  27th,  1903,  in  en- 
listing the  services  of  the  Xorth  American,  the  only 
Philadelphia  paper  publishing  the  protest  in  full.  Dr. 
Crafts  made  a  personal  visit  to  Gov.  S.  W.  Penny- 
packer  and  succeeded  in  having  the  Governor  state 
that  he  would  veto  the  bill  if  passed.  The  Hon. 
Thomas  B.  Cooper  took  up  the  fight  for  Dr.  Crafts 
in  the  Pennsylvania  Legislature.  April  15th,  1903, 
the  bill  was  re-committed,  dust  to  dust,  ashes  to 
ashes. 

But  the  first  exposure  of  race-track  methods  and 
the   first    fight   among   gamblers    was    at    Chicago. 

204 


Rev.  Wilbur  F,  Grafts,  Superintendent  International  Reform  Bureau  and 
Head  of  the  Anti-Gambling  Fight. 
205 


206  Easy  Money. 

Louis  Cella,  Sam  Adler  and  Cap.  Tillis  of  St.  Louis 
established  a  race  track,  pool-room  and  a  Monte 
Carlo  on  a  small  scale  at  Madison,  111.,  opposite  St. 
Louis. 

Shortly  after  the  establishment  of  this  track,  pool- 
room and  gambling  house,  John  Condon  of  Chicago, 
Charles  Social  Smith  and  Harry  Perry  and  a  few 
other  gamblers  of  Chicago  took  ofifense  at  the  Cella- 
Adler-Tillife  combination  going  over  into  Illinois 
and  operating  a  race  track.  Condon  sent  his  polit- 
ical henchmen  to  Springfield,  111.,  and  brought 
enough  pressure  to  bear  on  the  powers  to  succeed 
in  having  the  Madison  race  track,  pool-room  and 
gambling  house  put  out  of  business.  This  was  done 
by  the  issuance  of  the  writ  of  injunction  which  was 
secured  by  an  attorney  connected  with  the  office  of 
the  Attorney-General  of  Illinois,  though  it  was  not 
supposed  that  office  had  anything  to  do  with  it. 

Cella,  Adler  and  Tillis  were  enraged,  and  at  once 
tried  to  persuade  the  same  attorney  at  Springfield 
to  close  by  injunction  a  race  track  operated  in  Illi- 
nois by  Condon  ;  but  the  St.  Louis  crowd  did  not 
have  the  necessary  political  pull  in  Illinois  and  were 
turned  down. 

Madder  than  ever  and  bent  on  revenge,  they  then 
sought  to  secure  the  services  of  Fred  Rowe,  a  law- 
yer who  was  then  Gov.  Yates'  private  secretary,  and 
arrange  with  him  to  petition  for  an  injunction,  if  he 
could  find  some  attorney  to  do  the  fighting. 


The  Fight  Against  Race  Tracks.      207 

Mr.  Rowe  selected  and  named  Col.  W.  D.  Wash- 
burn, a  prominent  lawyer  of  Chicago,  and  then  a 
member  of  the  Governor's  staff,  as  the  attorney 
needed. 

Up  to  that  time,  the  spring  of  1901,  no  official  in 
Illinois  had  ever  apparently  thought  of  enforcing  the 
laws  against  race-track  gambling. 

Cella,  Adler  and  Tillis  had  interviews  with  Col. 
Washburn,  paid  him  the  agreed  retainer  and  gave 
him  instructions  to  close  up  every  track  in  Chicago 
and  Cook  county  and  vicinity.  The  retainer  was  ac- 
cepted on  the  condition  that  Cella  and  his  associates 
might  refuse  to  pay  further  fee  if  they  wished,  but 
that  the  attorney  should  have  the  right  to  fight  to 
a  finish.  This  condition,  which  was  strongly  op- 
posed by  the  clients,  but  stubbornly  insisted  upon 
by  Col.  Washburn,  was  finally  accepted,  and  it 
proved  the  death  knell  of  race-track  gambling,  not 
only  in  Illinois,  but  in  the  United  States ;  for  the 
fight  soon  spread. 

The  attorney  petitioned  for  and  secured  the  writ 
of  injunction  from  the  fearless  Judge  Holdom,  and 
it  created  such  a  shake-up  as  Chicago  had  never  be- 
fore seen.  The  officials  who  had  been  protecting  the 
gamblers  through  graft  saw  that  these  outlaws  liv- 
ing outside  of  Illinois  could  come  into  that  State 
and,  by  employing  a  competent  and  fearless  lawyer, 
could  cause  the  enforcement  of  the  law  which  the 
officials  had  sworn  to  enforce  and  were  paid  to  en- 
force, which  oath  they  deliberatelv  violated. 


208  Easy  Money. 

Such  is  the  influence  on  officials  of  money  and  its 
equivalent,  a  political  pull. 

The  anti-racing  laws  of  Illinois  have  been  en- 
forced ever  since  in  that  State. 

The  Harlem  race  track  of  John  Condon  which  was 
closed  by  Col.  Washburn  was  then  making  its  owner 
ten  thousand  dollars  a  day,  but  it  is  now  about  to  be 
converted  into  golf  links. 

Here  is  an  example  of  publicity  for  you. 

Thus  Cella,  Adler  and  Tillis  had  reckoned  with- 
out their  man  this  time,  as  their  lawyer  was  honest 
and  determined.  Condon  and  his  associates  appre- 
ciating that  they  had  been  outgeneraled,  began  to 
make  peace  with  the  Cella  gang,  and  soon  nego- 
tiated a  deal  by  which  all  were  to  work  together, 
and  attempted  to  stem  the  tide  that  threatened  the 
racing  business.  The  combined  forces  raised  one 
hundred  thousand  dollars  to  stop  the  fatal  fight. 
Twenty  thousand  dollars  of  this  was  taken  to  Col. 
Washburn's  office  in  the  Chicago  Title  and  Trust 
building,  and  offered  him  if  he  would  stop  the  fight. 
The  reply  came  that  a  toss  to  the  ground  from  the 
tenth-story  window  might  hurt,  and  the  fellow  left. 

Governor  Yates  was  then,  through  some  bad 
counsel,  induced  to  go  to  Chicago  and  order  the  fight 
stopped.  Mr.  Rowe  obeyed  the  order.  Col.  Wash- 
burn's answer  was  his  resignation  from  the  Gov- 
ernor's staff  and  his  declaration  to  lend  his  energies 
.to  secure  the  enforcement  of  the  law  against  race- 
horse gambling. 


Rev.  A.  S.  Gregg,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  Correspouding  Secretary  of  the 
International  Reform  Bureau. 
(14)  209 


210  Easy  Money. 

Fortunately  for  the  brotherhood  of  man,  Col. 
Washburn  refused  to  stop ;  it  was  a  fight  for  right- 
eousness, and  he  did  not  care  to  see  the  good  work 
undone. 

Great  consideration  should  be  given  to  Col.  Wash- 
burn, as  he  fought  against  the  wishes  of  the  then 
prosecuting  attorney,  Mr.  Deneen,  and  stopped 
racing  in  Illinois. 

John  Condon,  seeing  the  bad  position  that  he  had 
put  himself  in  by  starting  a  fight  against  the  Cella 
combination,  and  the  Cella  combination  seeing  that 
they  had  employed  a  man  who  would  not  stop,  were 
"up  a  tree."  But  thieves  soon  get  together  in  a  case 
of  this  kind.  John  Condon  and  associates,  Louis 
Cella  and  associates  kissed  and  made  up,  and  ever 
since  have  been  pals — in  the  race-track  business. 

The  next  race-track  fight,  the  hottest  one  up  to 
this  time,  was  inaugurated  by  Gov.  Jos.  W.  Folk  of 
Missouri.  This  fight  started  when  the  Cella-Adler- 
Tillis  combination  fought  Gov.  Folk's  nomination 
for  the  Governorship  of  Missouri. 

Governor  Folk  had  been  prosecuting  attorney  of 
the  City  of  St.  Louis  and  had  made  a  wonderful  rec- 
ord as  a  fearless,  uncorruptible  prosecuting  attor- 
ney, and  had  sent  to  the  penitentiary  eight  or  ten 
grafting  councilmen  and  members  of  the  St.  Louis 
House  of  Delegates,  The  race-track  interests  know- 
ing this,  and  knowing  that  Folk  was  thoroughly  ac- 
quainted with  their  thieving  operations,  combined 
to  prevent  his  nomination,  if  possible.    Their  lead- 


The  Fight  Against  Race  Tracks.      211 

horse  in  the  fight  was  Harry  Havves.  Backed  by  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars  and  the  tin-horn  gambling 
fraternity,  Hawes  made  a  bitter  fight  for  the  nom- 
ination. Folk  played  strictly  clean  politics,  went  out 
into  the  country  districts  of  Missouri  and  won  his 
battle,  was  nominated,  and  then  the  real  fight 
against  Folk  commenced. 

Cella  and  the  race-track  interests  spent  over  three 
hundred  thousand  dollars  to  defeat  Mr.  Folk  for 
Governor.  Little  Mark  Gumberts,  Harry  Hawes, 
and  the  brewery  interests  were  doing  the  fighting  in 
the  limelight,  with  Cella  and  Adler  furnishing  the 
money.     Mr.  Folk  was  elected. 

Shortly  after  the  Legislature  convened,  a  bill  was 
introduced  prohibiting  gamljling  in  any  form  on 
race  tracks  in  Missouri.  Again  a  lot  of  money  was 
spent  by  the  race-track  interests  to  defeat  this  bill, 
but  it  passed  and  became  a  law.  Even  then  the 
gamblers  refused  to  quit,  and  attempted  to  operate 
race  tracks  in  defiance  of  the  law,  and  did  for  a  few 
days,  when  Governor  Folk  sent  the  militia  out  to 
the  St.  Louis  track  and  closed  it  up.  He  also  had 
the  Atto'ney-General  of  the  State  file  a  suit  asking 
for  the  forfeiture  of  the  charter  of  the  Delmar 
Jockey  Club,  and  confiscation  of  its  property  on  ac- 
count of  its  gambling  against  the  law,  and  this  suit 
was  won  by  the  State  of  Alissouri.  Gov.  Folk's  life 
was  threatened,  bribes  were  offered  him,  but  he 
never  for  a  moment  stopped  or  hesitated  in  the  good 


Rev,  G,  L,  Tufts,  of  Berkeley,  California. 
212 


The  Fight  Against  Race  Tracks.      213 

work,  and  deserves  everlasting  public  gratitude  for 
his  vigorous  figlit  in  behalf  of  decency. 

The  fight  in  New  York  was  probably  the  longest 
in  the  history  of  turfdom.  When  Mr.  Hughes  was 
elected  Governor  of  that  State  he  was  flooded  with 
letters,  telegrams  and  petitions  to  stop  race-track 
gambling.  He  looked  into  the  situation  thoroughly, 
became  convinced  of  the  great  injury  being  done  to 
the  public  and  the  thieving  methods  of  the  people 
running  the  game,  and  took  up  the  fight  in  behalf 
of  the  people.  He  had  laws  passed  prohibiting  book 
making;  but  the  bookmakers  and  race-track  owners 
then  sprung  the  oral  betting  system,  and  were  sus- 
tained by  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  the  State,  which 
held  that  it  was  not  a  felony  for  twa  individuals  to 
make  a  wager  upon  a  contest  of  man  or  beast  pro- 
viding they  were  not  professional  gamblers,  and  did 
not  make  a  business  of  laying  wagers. 

The  race-track  interests  continued  to  run  under 
the  order  of  the  court,  but  Governor  Hughes,  noth- 
ing daunted,  at  the  last  session  of  the  Legislature, 
in  the  spring  of  1910,  had  a  law  passed  prohibit- 
ing betting  in  any  form,  oral  or  otherwise.  This 
law  became  effective  Sept.  1st,  1910,  and  was  the 
death-knell  of  racing  in  New  York  State. 

A  man  of  less  determination  than  Gov.  Hughes 
would  have  lost  this  great  battle.  Great  assistance 
was  rendered  him  by  Revs.  A.  S.  Gregg  and  O.  R. 
Miller. 


214  Easy  Money. 

Louisiana  fell  into  line  shortly  after  Missouri,  and 
prohibited  race-track  gambling.  The  business  men 
of  New  Orleans  set  up  a  great  howl  at  the  time,  say- 
ing that  it  would  kill  the  city;  but  I  dare  say  that 
now  they  would  say  that  it  was  the  best  thing  that 
ever  happened  for  the  State  of  Louisiana  and  the 
City  of  New  Orleans. 

The  gamblers  there,  as  elsewhere,  had  secured 
control  of  the  race  tracks,  and  were  not  satisfied 
with  one  track,  but  ran  two  at  the  same  time ;  and 
the  gamblers'  war,  of  which  no  one  received  any 
benefit  except  the  race-track  proprietors,  was  the 
wind-up  of  betting  in  New  Orleans. 

The  State  of  Washington  was  next  to  prohibit 
race-track  gambling,  which  killed  the  race  track  at 
Seattle. 

Texas  was  the  next  in  line,  and  then  California. 
The  Supreme  .Court  of  California,  following  the 
precedent  established  by  the  New  York  Court  of 
Appeals,  upheld  oral  betting  and  Thos.  H.  Williams 
of  Emeryville  ran  his  race  track  the  winter  of  1909 
and  1910  under  the  oral-betting  system. 

Indiana  in  the  meantime  had  fallen  in  line.  There 
are  at  this  writing  only  seven  states  where  race- 
track gambling  is  not  prohibited. 

When  the  anti-racing  law  was  passed  in  Texas  the 
American  gamblers  immediately  moved  to  Mexico 
and  there  have  established -a  race  track  at  Juarez, 
one  and  one-quarter  miles  from  the  international 
boundary  line,  opposite  El  Paso. 


Rev,  0.  R.  Miller,  of  New  York,  Who  Has  Done  Effective  Work 

Against  Gambling. 

215 


216  Easy  Money. 

Betting  on  horse  racing  is  not  prohibited  in  the 
States  of  Maryland.  Oklahoma,  Montana,  Florida, 
Kentucky,  Virginia  and  Utah. 

During  the  season  just  past  a  track  was  operated 
in  Baltimore  and  one  in  Malboro,  a  country  place 
just  outside  of  the  boundary  of  the  District  of  Co- 
lumbia. 

Oklahoma  has  had  the  note  of  being  disgraced  by 
the  operation  of  three  tracks  within  its  boundaries : 
one  at  Tulsa,  one  at  Guthrie  and  one  at  Oklahoma 
City. 

Montana  has  restricted  race  meetings  to  thirty 
days.  The  only  track  operated  in  that  State  is  lo- 
cated at  Butte. 

In  Florida  betting  is  permitted  until  January  1st, 
1911,  when  an  anti-race-track  law  becomes  effective. 
A  track  has  been  operated  at  Tampa,  one  in  Pensa- 
cola  and  one  at  Jacksonville. 

Betting  on  horse  races  is  not  prohibited  in  Ken- 
tucky, but  bookmaking  is.  That  State  has  not 
reached  the  high  plane  of  morality  which  justifies 
it  in  prohibiting  gambling  on  horse  racing  entirely, 
but  permitting  it  to  be  done  through  Paris  mutual 
machines,  a  machine  described  in  detail  in  another 
part  of  this  book. 

There  are  three  tracks  in  operation  in  Kentucky: 
one  at  Louisville,  one  at  Lexington  and  one  at  La- 
tonia,  opposite  Cincinnati. 

In  Virginia  a  race  track  is  still  operated  at  James- 
town. 


The  Fight  Against  Race  Tracks.      217 

In  Utah  they  have  not  reached  the  stage  of  prohi- 
bition of  race  tracks,  but  in  the  city  of  Salt  Lake 
betting  on  horse  races  is  prohibited. 

Under  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
State  of  California,  which  favors  oral  betting, 
Thomas  H.  Williams  has  been  and  is  now  operating 
a  track  at  Emeryville.  The  prospects  are  that  the 
Legislature  of  California,  which  convenes  in  Janu- 
ary, 1911,  will  adopt  the  law  against  oral  betting  re- 
cently enacted  in  New  York. 

There  is  one  track  in  operation  in  Mexico,  which 
is  so  situated  that  it  is  practically  a  United  States 
institution.  Reference  is  made  to  the  track  estab- 
lished a  year  ago  at  Juarez,  across  the  line  from  El 
Paso.  This  track  is  controlled  and  operated  by  cit- 
izens of  the  United  States,  and  shows  the  despera- 
tion of  gamblers  who  are  determined  to  continue  in 
their  nefarious  business. 

The  evil  results  of  the  race  track  at  Juarez,  as 
well  as  those  at  other  places  just  beyond  the  juris- 
diction of  the  United  States,  is  felt  in  the  transmis- 
sion of  reports  of  the  races  to  pool-rooms  in  the 
United  States. 

There  are  two  tracks  in  operation  in  Canada,  one 
at  Fort  Erie  and  one  at  Windsor.  While  the  Cana- 
dian law  prohibits  transmission  of  gambling  news 
over  telegraph  or  telephone  wires,  yet  these  tracks 
assist  in  supporting  numerous  pool-rooms  in  the 
United  States,  because  the  law  mentioned  is  vio- 
lated. 


^ 


U.  S.  Senator  E.  J.  Burkett  of  Nebraska,  Author  of  the  Burkett  Anti-Gambling 
Bill  to  Prohibit  International  or  Interstate  Transmission  of  Racing  News. 

218 


The  Figlit  Against  Race  Tracks.      219 

The  enactment  by  Congress  of  the  "Interstate 
Race  Gambling  Bill,"  known  as  the  Burkett  Bill, 
now  pending,  which  prohibits  the  transmission  of 
race-track  news,  would  mean  the  suppression  of 
further  operation  of  these  bordering  race  tracks. 

More  men,  such  as  ex-Gov.  Folk  of  Missouri, 
ex-Gov.  Hughes  of  New  York,  Gov.  Marshall  of  In- 
diana, Gov.  Sanders  of  Louisiana  and  Col.  Wash- 
burn of  Chicago  are  needed  in  official  positions. 
These  gentlemen  have  killed  gambling  in  their  re- 
spective states  by  simply  having  the  law  enforced. 
It  is  the  corrupt  bargains  between  gamblers  and 
politicians  that  permit  gambling  to  exist.  Stop  the 
cause  and  you  will  stop  the  effect. 


CHAPTER  XXL 

PLAGUE  SPOTS  IN  AMERICAN  CITIES. 

NEW  YORK. 

One  of  the  most  infamous  places  in  the  world  is 
the  Union  Cafe  on  Broadway,  between  Thirty-ninth 
and  Fortieth  streets,  New  York  City,  conducted  by 
a  man  from  Chicago,  who  is  known  among  the  fra- 
ternity as  the  "Chicago  Rat."  He  was  around  Chi- 
cago broke  about  nine  or  ten  years  ago,  and  because 
of  his  notorious  and  unsavory  reputation  was  forced 
to  leave  there. 

He  went  to  New  York,  and  in  some  manner  be- 
came quite  strong  politically,  opening  a  place  on 
Thirty-fourth  street,  across  from  the  Waldorf-As- 
toria. There  he  inaugurated  a  pool-room  and  gam- 
bling house  combined.  Faro  bank  and  roulette 
wheel,  both  crooked,  were  played  to  rob  the  public. 
He  had  many  steerers  out  working  for  him,  and 
divided  large  sums  of  money  with  the  powers  that 
be  in  the  political  line. 

Finally  he  double-crossed  one  of  the  Tammany 
politicians  and  was  forced  to  give  up  his  Thirty- 
fourth-street  place.  He  then  opened  the  Union 
Cafe. 

His  trouble  with  the  Tammany  politician  was  his 
refusal  to  divide  a  large  sum  of  money  taken  from  a 
well-known  actor  by  the  use  of  a  roulette  wheel  so 

220 


Plague  Spots  in  American  Cities.      221 

equipped  with  electricity  as  to  be  under  the  control 
of  the  operator. 

"Chicago  Rat"  has  been  running  a  pool-room, 
hand-book,  roulette  wheel  and  poker  game  in  the 
Union  Cafe  for  two  years  past — crooked  and  oper- 
ated under  political  protection. 

He  has  been  the  cause  of  the  ruin  of  many  young 
girls  by  permitting  them  to  become  intoxicated  in 
his  place,  and  thus  starting  them  on  their  downward 
path. 

His  life  does  not  illustrate  the  proverb  that  "the 
way  of  the  transgressor  is  hard."  Nine  years  ago 
he  was  scratching  around  Chicago  borrowing 
enough  to  purchase  a  ham  sandwich  and  lunching 
at  bar-room  lunch  tables.  Today  he  has  champagne 
for  breakfast  and  champagne  baths.  But  it  is  a  long 
lane  that  has  no  turning,  and  may  be  some  day  the 
devil  will  gather  in  his  own. 

Another  infamous  establishment  in  New  York 
City  is  the  "Casino  Cafe,"  located  at  Thirty-ninth 
street  and  Broadway. 

The  lines  of  conduct  of  this  cafe  may  have  been 
changed  under  the  management  of  the  new  proprie- 
tor who  took  charge  in  the  summer  of  1910;  and 
the  remarks  here  made  concerning  it  apply  only  to 
the  time  when  it  was  owned  and  operated  by  the 
former  owner. 

Under  the  old  management  there  were  operated 
in  the  Casino  Cafe  a  pool-room,  hand-book  and 
"fence ;"  by   which  is    meant  a    place  where  stolen 


222  Easy  Money. 

goods  are  received  with  the  knowledge  of  their 
theft. 

After  the  enactment  of  the  law  prohibiting  the 
transmission  of  race-track  news  over  the  telegraph 
wires  in  New  York  the  telephone  was  used  secretly 
for  such  purpose.  A  long-distance  telephone  wire 
connected  the  Casino  Cafe  with  the  headquarters  of 
the  Race  Information  Bureau. 

I  have  been  a  witness  of  scenes  in  the  Casino 
Cafe,  and  I  know  of  an  arrangement  made  with  the 
chief  operator  of  the  Race  Information  Bureau  by 
which  the  news  of  the  results  of  races  were  held 
back  and  a  confederate  was  given  the  news  over  an- 
other telephone.  This  party,  being  near  by,  rushed 
to  the  iron  grating  that  was  over  the  sidewalk,  the 
pool-room  being  in  the  basement  of  the  building, 
dropped  a  numbered  card  through  the  grating, 
which  card  was  received  by  a  watcher  below,  who 
quickly  entered  the  pool-room  and  bet  on  the  win- 
ning horse,  as  indicated  by  the  number  on  the  card, 
and  then  awaited  the  report  of  the  race  over  the  of- 
ficial telephone  wire.  In  this  way  the  proprietor 
was  trimmed  at  his  own  game  to  the  extent  of  sev- 
eral hundred  dollars.  The  scheme  was  not  played 
long  ere  his  sagacity  was  aroused,  when  he  discov- 
ered the  trick  and  politely  invited  all  connected  with 
it  to  move  farther  up  the  street. 

There  is  a  notorious  character  in  New  York  City 
known  as  the  "Bleeker  Street  Pool-room  King."  He 
is  now  operating  probably  twenty  pool-rooms  and 


Plague  Spots  in  American  Cities.      223 

hand-books  in  New  York  City.  His  operations  are 
done  under  political  protection  and  with  half  an  ef- 
fort the  authorities  could  locate  and  suppress  his 
places  of  business. 

The  results  of  races  are  posted  on  the  New  York 
Herald  bulletin  board,  at  Thirty-fifth  street  and 
Broadway,  and  there  betting  is  carried  on  openly. 
There  are  mingled  amongst  the  watchers  of  the 
bulletin  "Sidewalk  Jack"  and  seven  or  eight  hand- 
book makers,  who  will  take  your  bet  on  anything  at 
any  price. 

Bets  can  also  be  placed  in  New  York  City  at  most 
of  the  hotels  and  cigar  stands.  Any  hotel  porter  can 
give  you  information  as  to  where  to  place  your  bet. 
In  "The  Tenderloin",  on  "The  Bowery",  in  "The 
Bronx",  on  the  east  side  and  the  west  side,  one  can 
place  bets  on  horse  races. 

There  are  over  one  hundred  thousand  race-horse 
gamblers  in  New  York  City  and  ex-Police  Commis- 
sioner Baker  claimed  not  to  have  known  of  such 
fact. 

There  has  recently  come  into  the  limelight  Clem- 
ent C.  Driscoll,  recently  appointed  Deputy  Police 
Commissioner  of  New  York  City.  The  appointment 
of  Mr.  Driscoll  to  the  position  named  is  a  most  for- 
tunate one  for  the  people,  and  will  be,  I  predict,  a 
ruinous  one  to  the  gamblers.  Mr.  Driscoll  has  had 
opportunity  in  the  past  to  ascertain  and  knows  the 
ways  and  locations  of  the  New  York  gamblers  and 
cut-throats,  and  will  play  havoc  with  their  business, 


224  Easy  Money. 

unless  some  political  power  ties  his  hands  and  sup- 
presses his  efforts. 

I  was  in  New  York  the  middle  of  November, 
1910,  and  was  sufficiently  in  touch  with  the  old  gang 
to  receive  substantial  evidence  that  the  gamblers 
were  after  Mr.  Driscoll,  and,  as  one  of  them  told  me, 
they  were  "going  to  get  him."  Mr.  Driscoll  was 
cautiously  wise  in  carrying  a  revolver  when  actively 
taking  part  in  a  raid  in  December,  1910;  and  it  is  not 
likely  that  he  will  be  unprepared  for  any  emergency 
that  may  arise  when  the  representatives  of  the  gam- 
blers try  to  "get  him"  and  earn  the  fifteen  thousand 
dollar  fund  which  the  Harlem  gamblers  have  raised 
for  such  purpose. 

CHICAGO. 

Charles,  familiarly  known  as  "Social  Smith",  has 
for  years  been  the  proprietor  of  notorious  dives  in 
Chicago.  He  was  the  proprietor  of  "The  Social", 
one  of  the  most  infamous  hell-holes  on  State  street. 

In  "The  Social"  gambling  was  conducted  down- 
stairs in  all  its  forms,  including  crap  games,  poker 
games,  faro  and  roulette.  On  the  main  floor  there 
was  a  saloon  and  pool-room.  In  the  rear  of  the  sa- 
loon was  a  reception  room  where  lewd  women,  of 
the  lowest  type,  pannel  workers  and  infamous  char- 
acters of  all  kinds  congregated  and  mingled,  and 
where  intoxication  reigned  supreme.  On  the  floors 
above  a  hotel  was  conducted,  which  was  an  assigna- 
tion dive  of  the  worst  sort. 


Plague  Spots  in  American  Cities.      225 

Smith  accumulated  a  fortune  from  the  proceeds 
of  this  nefarious  place  and  then  opened  the  "Em- 
pire", a  first-class  saloon  and  .^ambling-  house,  on 
the  same  street.  The  "Empire"  did  not  prove  a  suc- 
cessful investment,  and  was  destroyed  by  fire,  un- 
der suspicious  circumstances. 

Smith  is  now  at  the  head  of  a  Chicago  syndicate 
which  conducts  over  two  hundred  hand-books  in 
that  city.  He  operates  the  big-wheel  and  dice 
games,  and  other  kinds  of  gambling,  at  country  fairs 
and  race  meetings.  He  has  been  permitted  to  oper- 
ate in  Chicago  without  molestation. 

Smith  is  the  financial  backer  of  the  race  track  at 
Pensacola,  Florida.  He  absolutely  controls  the  bet- 
ting ring  on  that  race  track  and  controls  the  betting 
prices  to  favor  his  Chicago  hand-books. 

Hand-books  in  Chicago  are  being  operated  by 
Mont  Tennis,  Jim  O'Leary,  Tom  AlcGinnis,  John 
Condon  and  Horace  Argo. 

Mont  Tennis  controls  the  wire  service  in  Chicago 
in  the  transmission  of  race-track  betting  odds. 

Race-track  gambling  is  assisted  in  Chicago  by  the 
publication  of  the  "Chicago  Daily  Race  Form", 
which  is  the  affi&ial  paper  for  the  races. 

In  the  recent  throwing  of  bombs  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  gambling  houses  in  Chicago  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  the  gambling  quarters  of  Tom  McGinnis  have 
never  been  disturbed.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
during  the  last  two  years  there  have  been  thirty- 
four  gambling  places  destroyed  by  the  explosion  of 

(15) 


226  Easy  Money. 

bombs  and  a  number  of  people  injured.  The  motive 
of  such  desperate  action  has  been  publicly  declared 
to  be  to  destroy  opposition,  so  that  one  set  of  gam- 
blers could  have  a  monopoly  of  the  business  in  Chi- 
cago. 

Chicago  is  very  little  less  infected  by  nefarious 
gambling  dens  than  New  York  City.  Public  offi- 
cials could  easily  ascertain  where  the  law  is  being 
violated  by  conducting  dens  of  infamy,  if  they  cared 
to  do  so. 

In  Chicago,  as  in  New  York  City,  you  can  place 
bets  on  horse  races  at  most  any  cigar  stand,  and  em- 
ployees of  hotels  can  tell  you  where  to  go  if  you  de- 
sire to  engage  in  such  pastime. 

HOT  SPRINGS,  ARKANSAS. 

Hot  Springs,  Arkansas,  has  been  noted  for  years 
as  the  "Monte  Carlo"  of  the  Middle  West,  where 
you  could  gamble  at  slot  machines,  faro  bank,  rou- 
lette, bridge  whist,  penochle,  cribbage,  stud  and 
draw  poker,  seven  and  one-half,  craps,  Klondyke, 
and  last  but  not  least,  the  dear  old  race-horse  game. 

There  have  been  as  many  as  fifteen  "clubs"  in 
operation  at  one  time  in  Hot  Springs,  in  open  de- 
fiance of  the  state  laws.  Officials  were  corrupted 
by  giving  them  money  stolen  from  the  public. 
Every  one  of  these  "clubs"  operated  gambling 
games  of  all  kinds,  which  were  played  and  fixed  to 
cheat  the  public.  There  was  not  a  club  run  on  the 
square. 


Plague  Spots  in  American  Cities.      227 

The  business  arid  hotel  men  of  Hot  Springs  set 
up  a  mighty  howl  when  gambling  was  stopped,  or 
supposed  to  be  stopped,  saying  that  it  would  bank- 
rupt the  city.  It  did  not  do  so.  Hot  Springs  is  just 
as  prosperous  today  as  it  was  during  the  heydays  of 
gambling,  and  a  great  deal  more  respectable  and 
safer.     Still  gambling  is  carried  on  openly  there. 

The  "Ohio  Club"  has  been  running  for  some 
years  at  Hot  Springs.  It  pays  for  protection  to  the 
proper  officials  to  operate. 

The  "Southern  Club",  "Illinois  Club",  "Arkansas 
Club",  "Missouri  Club",  and  several  others  open 
during  the  winter  season. 

Opposite  the  Arlington  Hotel,  at  the  cigar  store, 
you  can  find  the  Daily  Racing  Form  charts,  tips  on 
the  horses,  and  can  place  bets. 

Any  amount  of  money  can  be  wagered  in  this 
place  on  any  horse  at  any  track  in  the  United  States, 
Canada  or  Mexico. 

Pool-rooms  have  not  been  run  wide  open  in  Hot 
Springs  for  about  two  years. 

The  foregoing  statements  concerning  Hot  Springs 
are  not  correct  as  to  gambling  conditions  there  since 
November,  1910.  That  month  Judge  Woods  was 
elected  district  or  prosecuting  attorney,  and  he 
promptly  and  efficiently  enforced  the  anti-gambling 
laws  of  Arkansas.  Even  the  private  poker  games, 
so  long  a  feature  of  the  x\rlington  Hotel,  are  played 
no  more. 


228  Easy  Money. 

NEW  ORLEANS,  LOUISIANA. 

"Sitting  Bull"  Bush  has  been  for  years  the  domi- 
nating figure  in  race-track  graft  at  New  Orleans. 
In  his  early  life  he  was  a  sure-thing  confidence  man 
and  three-card-monte  player  on  the  Mississippi 
river.  His  conduct  of  the  Crescent  City  Jockey 
Club  was  so  infamous  that  it  moved  the  citizens  of 
New  Orleans  to  demand  and  obtain  the  closing  of 
the  race  track. 

Just  a  few  years  ago  Bush  had  a  gambling  house 
and  pool-room  in  full  blast,  but  they,  too,  were 
closed  by  the  police. 

The  only  way  to  bet  at  the  present  time  on  the 
horses  in  New  Orleans  is  through  the  hand-books, 
of  which  there  are  at  least  ten  in  operation. 

You  can  also  find  plenty  of  poker  games  in  New 
Orleans,  and  can  purchase  a  lottery  ticket  at  any 
cigar  stand  or  saloon. 

FRENCH  LICK  SPRINGS. 

The  nearest  approach  in  the  United  States  to  the 
famous  Monte  Carlo  is  French  Lick  Springs,  which 
is  the  plague  spot  on  the  fair  name  of  Indiana. 
There  is  a  companion  town,  one  and  one-half  miles 
distant,  called  West  Baden,  almost  as  bad. 

The  continuous  operation  for  years  of  the  famous 
French  Lick  Springs  resort,  and  the  flagrant  disre- 
gard there  of  law  and  morals,  evidences  the  influ- 
ence of  powerful  politics. 

The  proprietor  is  Tom  Taggart,  in  himself  a  clean 
and  splendid  gentleman,  who  for  years  has  been  a 


Plague  Spots  in  American  Cities.      229 

prominent  figure  in  national  and  Indiana  politics. 
He  was  chairman  of  the  Democratic  National  Com- 
mittee during  one  of  William  J.  Bryan's  campaigns. 
While  he  is  the  proprietor  of  but  one,  he  is  the  pro- 
tector of  both  the  Indiana  resorts. 

French  Lick  Springs  was  first  advertised  as  a 
health  resort,  and  the  virtues  of  the  water  there 
have  been  loudly  and  long  proclaimed;  but  what- 
ever may  have  been  the  medicinal  qualities  of  the 
water,  they  could  never  be  such  as  to  cure  the  moral 
diisease  that  takes  hold  of  the  people  who  go  there 
and  yield  to  the  temptation  of  the  numerous  gam- 
bling games,  which  are  conducted  to  relieve  the  vis- 
itor of  his  wealth. 

In  the  gambling  casino  at  the  famous  French  Lick 
Springs  I  have  seen  women  and  children  gambling 
away  their  last  penny ;  I  have  witnessed  men  give 
up  their  last  dollar  to  the  crooked  games  there  con- 
ducted ;  I  have  known  women  to  steal  money  from 
their  husbands  to  play  the  fixed  slot  machines  oper- 
ated there.  Faro  bank,  Klondyke  and  crap  games 
are  operated  there.  A  pool-room  and  hand-books 
afford  the  visitor  every  opportunity  to  bet  on  the 
races. 

The  games  at  this  place  are  different-  from  those 
at  the  real  Monte  Carlo  in  that  those  at  French  Lick 
Springs  are  not  on  the  square  and  the  gambling  de- 
vices are  fixed  to  cheat  the  player.  Slot  machines 
are  geared  so  as  to  win  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  plays 
for  the    proprietor.      Loaded    dice    are    used.     The 


230  Easy  Money. 

Klondyke  game  is  played  in  connection  with  a  se- 
cret electric  battery,  the  dice  having  magnets,  and 
the  wires  are  manipulated  in  such  manner  that  the 
player  has  no  chance  of  winning.  Marked  cards  and 
professional  poker  players  await  you  as  their  vic- 
tim, and  a  faro  bank  with  an  electric  "snake"  in  it 
will  take  the  last  dollar  you  possess. 

Every  possible  effort  has  been  made  by  the  State 
officials,  and  particularly  by  Governor  Marshall,  to 
suppress  this  infamous  place,  but  without  avail ;  be- 
cause the  county  authorities  are  in  power.  It  would 
seem  that  the  only  way  to  effectually  destroy  the 
gambling  feature  of  this  Monte  Carlo  would  be  to 
wipe  off  the  map  the  county  in  which  it  is  located. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  through  Mr.  Taggart's  po- 
litical power  and  influence  gambling  in  other  parts 
of  Indiana  is  practically  suppressed,  so  his  resort 
has  a  monopoly  on  the  nefarious  business. 

PHILADELPHIA. 

Philadelphia  has  been  noted  as  being  "slow"  in 
many  ways,  but  in  gambling  lines  it  has  been  very 
rapid.  Hand-books  have  for  years  flourished  in  that 
city  and  are  operated  there  to  a  considerable  extent 
at  this  time. 

John  Wynn,  formerly  of  St.  Louis,  known  as  the 
"Crap  Game  King"  of  the  United  States,  has  been 
operating  that  game  and  hand-books  in  Philadelphia 
for  a  long  time. 

As  a  result  of  my  statement  before  the  Judiciary 
Committee  of  the  United  States  Senate  in  Decem- 


Plague  Spots  in  American  Cities.      231 

ber,  1909,  concerning  gambling  in  the  United  States, 
in  which  I  named  places  in  Philadelphia  where  pool- 
rooms and  hand-books  were  being  conducted,  the 
police  raided  over  ten  pool-rooms  and  closed  them. 
Since  then  it  is  more  difficult  to  locate  a  pool-room 
or  hand-book  in  that  city. 

ST.  LOUIS. 

Charlie  Cella  and  Mark  Gumberts  are  making 
hand-books  at  the  rendezvous  just  outside  of  St. 
Louis  called  the  "Chicken  Farm."  Every  bettor  is 
treated  without  cost  to  one-half  of  a  fried  chicken. 

Cella  has  been  interested  in  race-track  proposi- 
tions, and  the  backer  of  several  hand-books  and 
pool-rooms  and  gambling  houses  in  the  vicinity  of 
St.  Louis. 

Mark  Gumberts  was  a  partner  of  mine  on  the 
steamer  "Corwin  H.  Spencer"  during  the  World's 
Fair  season,  and  he  was  interested  with  me  in  all 
the  grafting  games  on  the  river. 

Tom  Getz,  known  as  "Dago  Tom",  is  making 
hand-book  at  St.  Louis  and  East  St.  Louis. 

Other  notorious  hand-book  proprietors  now  oper- 
ating at  St.  Louis  and  East  St.  Louis  are  Frank 
Carr,  George  Ehrlich,  alias  "Bugs",  Shelby  Oliver, 
the  "bonfire  bookmaker",  Cafiferatta,  Lee  Wagner, 
"Billy"  Hageman,  the  Beau  Brummel  of  St.  Louis 
sports,  and  Kid  Becker,  known  as  the  "Welching 
Kid." 


232  Easy  Money. 

LOS  ANGELES. 

There  has  recently  been  an  enforcement  of  all 
anti-gambling  laws,  both  State  and  municipal,  in 
Los  Angeles.  The  enforcement  of  the  recent  State 
enactment  against  betting  on  horse  races  has  pre- 
vented the  operation  of  the  Santa  Anita  race  track, 
and  hence  has  helped  to  clean  Los  Angeles  of  gam- 
blers. 

The  city  legislative  body  has  enacted  a  stringent 
ordinance  against  the  publication  or  disseminating 
in  any  way  information  concerning  races.  Proprie- 
tors of  hand-books  have  been  arrested  and  prose- 
cuted successfully,  and  Los  Angeles  is  cleaner  in 
gambling  lines  than  any  city  ©f  its  size  in  the  United 
States. 

Yet  those  who  are  desirous  of  doing  so  can  find 
opportunity,  by  careful  inquiry,  to  place  their  bets 
on  horse  races.  A  number  of  cigar-stand  proprie- 
tors conduct  hand-books. 

ATLANTIC  CITY. 
Gambling  games  and  hand-books  are  being  con- 
ducted at  Atlantic  City,  N.  J.,  in  such  an  open  and 
flagrant  way  as  to  indicate  that  they  are  being  run 
under  "protection."  It  would  be  shocking  to  know 
the  excessive  indulgence  in  gambling  games  there 
by  the  "society  people"  who  frequent  that  resort. 

SAN  FRANCISCO. 
San  Francisco  has  for  years  been  infested  by  gam- 
blers of  all  kinds  and  descriptions.    It  has  been  well 


Plague  Spots  in  American  Cities.      233 

named  as  the  "New  York"  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  Up 
to  the  time  of  breaking  up  the  Abe  Ruef  ring  oi"  pol- 
iticians and  gamblers  San  Francisco  probably  fur- 
nished more  sport  and  thrilling  incidents  along  gam- 
bling lines  than  New  York  or  Chicago.  It  is  the 
home  of  the  players  and  patrons  of  Tom  Williams' 
race  tracks  at  Emeryville,  Tanforan  and  Ingleside. 

There  is  not  a  gambling  game  known  that  is  not 
being  played  m  that  city  openly  under  the  regime 
of  Mayor  McCarthy. 

Abe  Ruef  and  his  political  and  gambling  com- 
bine have  been  temporarily  suppressed.  Abe  is 
headed  for  the  penitentiary  under  a  sentence  of  four- 
teen years,  the  appellate  court  having  recently  af- 
firmed the  decision  of  the  trial  court,  in  which  this 
notorious  and  infamous  character  was  convicted. 

Ex-Mayor  Schmidt  was  ignominiously  removed 
from  office.  He  was  succeeded  by  a  clean  and  splen- 
did gentleman,  who  wrought  many  changes  in  the 
life  of  the  San  Francisco  underworld.  When  Mr. 
W.  J.  Heney,  the  fearless  and  valiant  prosecutor  of 
criminals,  was  in  the  courtroom  prosecuting  Abe 
Ruef  and  was  shot,  the  present  Governor-elect,  Hi- 
ram Johnson,  took  up  the  work  of  Mr.  Heney  and 
became  hated  by  Ruef  and  his  gang. 

After  all  the  efifort  made  by  Heney,  Johnson, 
Spreckels  and  other  valiant  citizens,  San  Francisco 
is  again  an  open  and  loose  town  under  the  adminis- 
tration of  the  present  mayor,  "Pinhead"  McCarthy, 
who  made  the  plea  in  Washington  for  the  holding 


234  Easy  Money. 

of  the  Panama  Canal  celebration  in  San  Francisco 
because  it  was  the  "Paris  of  America."  The  serious 
feature  of  this  declaration  is  that  it  is  largely  the 
truth. 

San  Francisco  now  offers  opportunity  to  those 
who  desire  to  play  any  gambling  game  or  bet  on  a 
horse  race  at  any  track. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

GAMBLING  INCLINATION  OF  NATIONS. 

The  hardest  people  in  the  world  to  swindle  are 
the  Irish.  They  will  "outcon"  you.  Their  natural 
quick  wit  has  caused  many  a  poor  grafter  to  come 
to  grief. 

I.  remember  one  experience  which  a  gang  of  us 
had  with  an  Irishman.  He  promised  to  bet  ten 
thousand  dollars  on  a  horse,  we  having  convinced 
him  that  we  were  all  right.  He  showed  us  the 
money.  We  let  him  win  five  hundred  dollars  as  a 
"feeler." 

The  next  day,  when  the  Irishman  was  to  have  bet 
his  ten  thousand  dollars,  he  appeared  on  the  scene, 
game  to  the  core,  and  said :  "Well  boys,  Oi  am  here. 
Oi  wants  to  thank  yez  for  that  foive  hundred  that 
yez  let  me  have  yisterday.  Shure,  and  'tis  foine  in- 
terest on  me  capital  over  night,  and  Oi  think  Oi 
will  keep  the  whole  works;"  and  with  a  laugh  he 
left  us. 

The  Jew,  or  Hebrew,  to  which  nationality  it  has 
been  often  said  I  belong,  probably  on  account  of 
the  "ski"  in  my  name,  is  next  to  the  Irishman  the 
hardest  man  to  beat.  His  natural  conversative  dis- 
position makes  him  a  hard  customer.  He  will  in- 
vestigate all  propositions  offered  him.  If  3^ou  get 
the  best  of  him  in  a  financial  transaction  you  must 
have  his  confidence,  which  is  very  hard  to  gain  on 

235 


236  Easy  Money. 

short  acquaintance.  He  may  appear  to  have  confi- 
dence in  you,  but  it  is  only  the  outer  crust  of  ap- 
pearance. 

The  German  is  naturally  slow,  and  has  not  the 
greed  for  money  along  the  get-rich-quick  or  get-it- 
any-way  lines,  as  have  the  two  nationalities  hereto- 
fore mentioned.  But  once  you  secure  the  German's 
confidence,  you  can't  lose  him,  and  after  you  break 
him  it  is  often  the  high  bridge  jump  for  him,  as  a 
German  seldom  recovers,  once  he  is  ruined. 

The  Italian  is  not  easy  to  deceive,  unless  you  have 
one  of  his  own  countrymen  in  the  game  -with  y®u, 
in  which  case  he  is  an  easy  mark. 

The  Spaniard,  or  Mexican,  is  very  excitable  and 
easily  "trimmed,"  providing  you  have  one  of  his 
own  nationality  to  play  the  game  with  you  and 
double-cross  him. 

The  Frenchman  as  a  rule  is  very  soft,  but  you 
must  use  very  polished  methods  with  him.  He  will 
not  bite  at  anything  unless  it  is  guaranteed,  double- 
dyed  and  assured. 

The  Englishman,  our  dear  cousin  across  the  pond, 
is  an  easy  victim.  He  will  bet  on  a  race  horse,  on 
the  stock  market  or  at  a  faro  bank,  particularly  if 
you  show  him  that  there  is  no  possible  chance  to 
lose.  But  you  must  be  very  cunning  and  conniving 
when  playing  for  an  Englishman  and  be  sure  and 
not  make  a  false  move,  as  he  is  always  on  the  alert. 

But  of  all  the  easy  victims  on  earth  our  dear 
brother  Americans  are   the  prey  of  the   gambler. 


Gamblino'  Inclination  of  Nations.      237 


'o 


The  old  saying,  "a  sucker  is  born  every  minute,"  I 
think  should  be  changed  to  "a  sucker  is  born  every 
second"  in  the  United  States.  The  quality  that 
makes  the  American  so  susceptible  to  the  whiles  of 
the  grafter  and  gambler  is  his  insatiable  greed  for 
money,  more  money.  He  eats  with  it,  sleeps  vv^ith 
it,  dreams  of  it  and  lives  with  it.  He  is  always 
striving  and  struggling  for  money.  It  is  money, 
money  all  the  time  with  the  American.  Go  to  him 
with  any  proposition  that  has  the  least  bit  of  plau- 
sibility and  he  will  rush  to  it  with  the  ardor  of  a 
boy  coasting  down  hill  on  the  snow. 

Americans  never  stop  and  think  until  after  they 
are  fleeced,  and  then  they  run  to  the  policeman 
and  the  policeman  runs  to  the  gambler,  and  the 
gambler  divides  with  the  policeman,  and  the  vic- 
tim gets  what  he  is  entitled  to — the  experience. 

The  Chinese  are  the  most  willing  and  enthusias- 
tic gamblers  in  the  world  but  they  are  hard  to  beat 
at  the  game.  Gustave  Schwaab  and  his  multi-mil- 
lionaire associates,  with  their  ten  thousand  dollar 
bluffs  on  bob-tail-flushes,  are  the  veriest  "pikers," 
compared  with  Chinese  gamblers.  Ah  Sen  will  bet 
not  only  his  money,  and  jewelry  on  his  fan-tan 
game,  but  will  risk  his  clothing  also. 

It  is  said  of  the  Chinese  that  they  will  bet  their 
fingers,  one  after  another,  against  a  sum  of  money, 
and  that  such  bets  are  made  between  enemies,  the 
winner  chopping  off  the  loser's  fingers  and  then 
furnishing  a  concoction  in  which  to  dip  the  stumps 
to  prevent  the  victim  from  bleeding  to  death. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

SELLING  TIPS. 

Selling  tips  is  extensively  followed  in  large 
cities.  The  "Telegraph"  in  New  York  and  the 
"Racing  Form"  in  Chicago  are  filled  with  columns 
of  advertisements  of  tip  sellers. 

If  races  were  fair,  but  they  are  not;  if  the  best 
horse  always  won,  and  he  does  not,  it  would  be 
possible  to  forecast  to  some  extent  the  outcome  of 
a  race. 

Ten  horses,  for  instance,  are  entered  for  a  race. 
If  you  are  provided  with  an  accurate  history  of  the 
previous  performances  of  each  horse,  if  you  are 
advised  as  to  the  health  and  general  condition  of 
each  horse,  if  you  know  the  reputation  for  honesty, 
or  the  reverse,  of  the  owner  of  each  horse  and  of  the 
jockey  who  is  to  ride  him,  you  may  be  able  to  esti- 
mate which  animal  is  most  likely  to  win,  and  which 
are  likely  to  be  second  or  third,  and  which  have  no 
chance  at  all. 

But  all  these  calculations  will  be  valueless,  be- 
cause two  or  three  of  the  owners,  or  two  or  three 
of  the  jockeys,  will  have  agreed  as  to  the  winner, 
and  only  the  conspirators  know  which  is  to  be  the 
winner. 

The  professional  tip  sellers  are  guessers  and  noth- 
ing else,   and  the  "tips"  which   they  vend  are  as 

238 


Selling  Tips.  239 

DAN  HART 

«9Slilli«i!.  (Flilalll(Billl(lii|>ll.r.Cllt.  Roms  44-15-46-47.  Tji!    enlM 

I  ■•"S^t  ,  O  O  0^_  KjO  ,R  IF  EJ^X"**  I 

TO-DAVS  CODE  HORSE 


Yesterday's  Code  Hsrse 

WAS  SCRATCHED  _^ 

a>l     Utr     ^     .— .     Frr*     of     i^tkrK*^    >"    .fli..«..i    J.-      and    >U    I    ftak    W 

SATURDAY'S  CODE  HORSE 

CAMEL,:  6-1,  WOH 

"'^'Q'sf  WEEK'S  CODE  HORSES 

MonV,  POCOMOKE  .  .  6-1,  WON 
Tues.,  BALLOT  BOX  .  .  4-1,  WON 
Wed.,  TOP  NOTE  .  .  .  13-10,  WON 
Tburs.,  FRANK  PURCELL  .  10- 1,  WON 
Fri.,  ROBIN  GREY  .  .  8-5,  WOI» 
Sat.,  CAMEL  ....   6-1.  WON 

No  Other  Horses  Sent  Out 

the   •SoVi   ^"rr^'  po.ll*  tl/the  only  li"i^«i°«»nt  i.«I."«ib  n^d^.v^ry 

Just  a  Few  Wj3rds 
About  To-day's  Horse 

"°^''  My  Advice  Will  6e  ' "  " 
Bet  Back  All  Winnings 


'  •'^'■•aiE'°= 


'o51«);-"!u',°2..";i., 


■»dT  eilaat  all   Wlnicr. 


Regular  Terms,  $10  Weekly 

A  Tip  Seller  Advertisementi 


240  Easy  Money. 

valueless  as  one  of  the  predictions  to  be  found  in 
old-fashioned  almanacs  concerning  what  the 
weather  will  be  six  months  thereafter. 

Uncle  Sam  has  tried  to  protect  the  unwary 
against  these  wolves  by  forbidding  the  use  of  the 
United  States  mails  to  newspapers  containing  such 
advertisements,  but  they  thrive  nevertheless. 

One  who  bets  on  a  race  is  fool  enough  without  in- 
creasing his  asininity  by  paying  for  an  idle  guess  as 
to  the  winners. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

STATEMENT     BEFORE     UNITED     STATES 
SENATE,    JUDICIARY    COMMITTEE— 
RACE-TRACK   FACTS   AND   FIG- 
URES —  INTERNATIONAL 
REFORM   BUREAU. 

In  December,  1909,  there  was,  and  is  now,  pend- 
ing before  the  United  States  Senate,  bill  "S.  225," 
to  prevent  the  nullification  of  state  anti-gambling 
laws  by  international  or  interstate  transmission  of 
race-gambling  bets  or  of  race-odds.  This  bill  was 
referred  to  the  judiciary  committee  of  the  Senate 
and  by  it  committed  to  a  sub-committee  composed 
of  Senators  Dillingham  of  Vermont,  Nelson  of 
Minnesota,  Sutherland  of  Utah,  Clarke  of  Arkansas, 
and  Paynter  of  Kentucky. 

The  purpose  of  the  bill  is  to  prohibit  by  trans- 
mission over  telegraph  or  telephone  wires,  from  one 
state  to  another  the  results  of  racing  bets  or  odds. 

The  International  Reform  Bureau  is  an  associa- 
tion, having  its  headquarters  at  Washington,  D.  C, 
which  has  for  its  purpose  the  suppression  of  vice, 
and  has  for  some  time,  and  is  now,  making  a  special 
effort  to  suppress  race-track  gambling  games.  The 
President  of  the  Bureau  is  Honorable  Henry  W. 
Blair,  Ex-United  States  Senator.  The  Superintend- 
ent and  Treasurer  is  Rev.  Wilbur  F,  Crafts.   Other 

(16)  241 


242  Easy  Money. 

active  leaders  of  the  Bureau  are  Rev.  G.  L.  Tufts  of 
Berkeley,  Rev.  O.  R.  Miller  of  New  York,  Rev.  A. 
S.  Gregg  of  Cleveland,  and  other  ministers  and  many 
laymen  of  the  different  states. 

My  work  with  the  Bureau  has  been  directed 
mainly  toward  the  suppression  of  race-track  gam- 
bling, and  gambling  in  all  forms,  and  on  such  lines 
I  am  working  and  purpose  to  work  on. 

I  was  requested  to  appear  before  the  sub-commit- 
tee of  the  Senate  Judiciary  Committee  and  address 
it  upon  the  subject  of  race-track  gambling.  My 
statement  before  the  sub-committee  has  been  pub- 
lished as  a  part  of  the  proceedings  before  the  sub- 
committee, as  well  as  in  various  publications 
throughout  the  United  States.  I  purpose  here  to 
quote  from  it  such  facts  and  figures  as  will  lend  in-, 
terest  and  give  information  upon  the  subject  of 
race-track  gambling. 

"Mr.  Chairman  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Committee : 
In  answer  to  the  inquiry  of  Senator  Nelson,  I  will 
state  in  a  moment  what  bookmaking  is.  I  will  pre- 
face my  remarks  by  stating  that  *  *  *  j  have 
booked  in  St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Worth,  Roby,  At- 
lanta, Charleston,  New  Orleans,  San  Francisco, 
Oakland,  Los  Angeles,  Latonia,  Louisville,  and 
Benning. 

"Judging  by  twenty-one  years  of  experience  as  a 
gambler,  I  must  state  that  the  greatest  evil  existing 
today  is  the  hand-book  and  pool-room  business  now 
being  carried  on  in  this  country. 


Ex-U,  S.  Senator  Henry  W,  Blair,  President  of  International  Reform  Bureau. 

243 


244  Easy  Money. 

"A  bookmaker  is  a  man  who  goes  to  the  race 
track  and  pays  $100  a  day  for  the  privilege  of  gam- 
bling against  the  horses  for  five  races.  There  are 
six  races  run  every  day,  and  sometimes  on  Satur- 
days seven.  The  bookmakers  must  pro-rate  and  pay 
for  the  one  or  two  extra  races.  The  racing  associa- 
tion does  not  pay  for  more  than  five  races.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  $100  a  day  and  the  pro-rating  of  the 
purses  of  the  extra  races,  we  pay  a  sheet  writer  $10 
a  day,  meaning  a  man  that  records  the  bets ;  a  ticket 
writer  $10  a  day,  a  man  that  puts  the  amount  of  the 
bet  on  a  ticket ;  a  cashier  $15  a  day ;  an  'outside'  man 
$10  a  day,  a  man  that  watches  the  other  bookmak- 
ers and  keeps  the  bookmaker  in  line  with  his  prices ; 
and  the  money  taker  $15  a  day.  The  bookmaker 
does  not  himself  receive  any  pay,  except  when  he  is 
working  with  borrowed  capital  or  some  other  per- 
son's money;  then  he  receives  $15  per  day  and  10 
per  cent,  on  the  net  winnings  of  the  book. 

"Senator  Nelson :    What  do  you  mean  by  'prices?' 

"Mr.  Brolaski :    The  prices  against  the  horses. 

"Senator  Nelson :  How  do  the  bookmakers  get 
their  money? 

"Mr.  Brolaski :  In  various  ways.  The  bookmaker 
makes  the  prices  according  to  the  'form'  of  the 
horses,  according  to  the  merit  the  horses  have 
shown  in  their  preliminary  trials,  and  according  to 
the  character  of  the  boys  that  ride  the  horses,  every- 
thing not  being  honest  on  a  race  track.  They  arrive 
at  these  figures  on  the  trials,  the  preliminary  gal- 


Facts  and  Figures,  245 

lops.  We  size  up  the  situation  and  make  our  prices 
accordingly.  If  there  are  three  horses  in  a  race,  we 
make  the  shortest  price  on  the  horse  that  we  think 
will  win.  Say  we  make  the  price  on  the  favorite 
even  money  ($1  to  $1),  that  would  be  fifty  per  cent, 
in  our  favor.  The  next  horse  we  would  probably 
make  2  to  1 ;  that  would  be  33  per  cent,  in  our 
favor;  the  other  horse,  3  to  1,  would  mean  25  per 
cent,  in  our  favor.  We  would  have  then  an  8  per 
cent.  book.  If  three  men  came  and  gambled  with 
me,  I  being  the  bookmaker,  I  would  retain  $8  of 
every  hundred  dollars  bet.  Bookmakers  gamble 
with  the  public  at  times.  They,  of  course,  have  the 
inside  knowledge  and  all  the  tricks  of  the  trade, 
with  which  the  public  is  not  acquainted. 

"In  addition  to  that,  after  the  race  is  run,  and  the 
book  is  made  up  as  to  what  they  will  win  or  lose, 
they  go  on  in  the  same  way  for  six  races  a  day.  I 
have  lost  as  much  as  $40,000  in  two  days  in  San 
Francisco,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  won  $60,000  on 
one  race  at  New  Orleans.  I  give  you  these  figures 
to  show  you  the  ups  and  downs  of  a  bookmaker. 

"I  have  started  booking  and  making  hand  books 
with  a  capital  of  $5,  knowing  that  I  would  not  have 
to  pay  the  bets  I  was  taking  if  things  went  right. 
If  they  went  wrong,  I  would  have  to  skirmish 
around  and  get  the  money.  But  they  seldom  went 
wrong. 

"Senator  Nelson:  You  might  state  to  the  com- 
mittee what  a  pool-room  is. 


246  Easy  Money. 

"Mr.  Brolaski :  A  pool-room  is  not  unlike  this 
room.  This  room  could  be  made  into  a  very  good 
pool-room  if  we  had  a  ticker,  telegraph  instrument, 
telephone  and  a  blackboard. 

"In  a  pool-room  we  have  on  the  wall  a  list  of  the 
horses,  the  jockeys,  the  weights  the  horses  are  to 
carry,  and  the  odds,  as  telegraphed  from  the  race 
track.  But  when  the  odds  come  from  the  race  track 
the  man  who  sends  the  information  cuts  the  odds  in 
two,  so  as  to  help  the  pool-room  owner.  I  know 
that  to  be  a  fact,  because  I  spent  two  seasons  at  the 
Kinloch  race  track  near  St.  Louis  as  official  caller 
of  races  and  sending  prices  to  papers.  I  not  only 
received  my  pay  from  the  Kinloch  Racing  Associa- 
tion, but  also  from  the  different  newspapers  and 
from  the  people  who  sent  the  news. 

"As  to  the  pool-room  odds,  if  the  price  against  a 
horse  is  6  to  1  at  the  track,  when  sent  to  the  pool- 
rooms it  is  made  3  to  1.  The  pool-room  per- 
centage will  run  from  25  to  150  per  cent,  against 
the  player  in  every  race. 

"Senator  Nelson :  You  might  tell  us  a  little  more 
fully  what  a  pool-room  is. 

"Mr.  Brolaski :  A  pool-room  is  a  place  where  20 
or  30  or  more  people  congregate  in  an  afternoon  to 
bet  on  horse  races  run  on  race  tracks  at  a  distance, 
the  news  being  sent  from  the  tracks  to  the  pool- 
rooms by  telegraph. 

"The  pool-room  service  is  handled  by  an  informa- 
tion bureau  known  as  the  Interstate  News  Company 


Facts  and  Figures.  247 

in  the  East,  which  leases  wires  from  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company.  Over  these  wires  they 
send  the  names  of  the  jockeys  and  scratches (  mean- 
ing horses  not  to  start  this  day),  and  then  the  bet- 
ting and  the  official  description  of  the  race.  The 
pool-rooms  allow  from  twenty  to  thirty  minutes  be- 
tween races  for  their  patrons  to  gamble." 

"First  the  entries  are  sent  (meaning  the  condition 
of  the  race,  names  of  horses,  weights  they  are  to 
carry,  names  of  jockeys  that  are  to  ride,  and  condi- 
tion of  track),  then  comes  the  first  betting,  the  first 
odds.  Then,  in  about  ten  minutes,  the  second  bet- 
ting comes.  Then  they  call  'post,'  'time.'  Then 
they  close  the  betting  on  that  race.  Then  the  horses 
start.  The  description  of  the  race  is  next  given;  the 
winner  is  called  off,  and  in  about  five  minutes  the 
jockeys  are  weighed  out  properly  at  the  track  and 
the  bets  are  paid  off  in  the  pool-room. 

>!:***  ^:  ******* 

Senator  Burkett :  Tell  us  something  of  the  profit 
in  the  race-track  business,  and  how,  in  your  judg- 
ment, the  'outside'  gambling — that  is,  gambling 
done  at  a  distance  from  the  race  track — compares 
with  the  amount  done  at  the  race  track.  In  short, 
what  is  the  relative  importance  of  pool-room  gam- 
bling as  compared  with  that  done  at  the  race  track, 
or  what  m.ight  be  called  'race-track  gambling 
proper?' 


248  Easy  Money. 

"Mr.  Brolaski :  In  the  State  of  New  York  the  race 
tracks  have  been  trying  for  some  time  to  prevent 
the  sending  out  of  information,  as  they  have  not 
derived  any  benefit  from  the  information  that  has 
gone  out.  Their  object  was  to  bring  everybody  to 
the  race  track.  But  New  York  is  the  only  place  in 
the  United  States  where  that  would  work.  Juarez, 
Mexico,  has  a  population  of  6,000.  Of  that  number 
there  are  perhaps  50  who  know  how  to  play  the 
races. 

"I  assisted  in  the  management  of  the  race  track 
in  Mexico  City  on  the  Fourth  of  July  this  year, 
1909.  We  had  5,000  people  at  the  race  track.  Of 
that  number  there  were  probably  2,000  Mexicans, 
and  of  those  there  were  probably  20  who  made  a 
bet.  They  do  not  know  the  American  custom  of 
bookmaking. 

"The  Juarez  race  track  can  not  live  without  the 
pool-room  service.  It  will  receive  a  revenue  from 
this  source  of  from  $2,500  to  $4,000  a  day,  according 
to  the  activity  displayed  in  closing  up  other  race 
tracks  throughout  the  country. 

"Senator  Nelson :  There  is  one  thing  that  is  not 
very  clear  to  me — that  is,  about  these  bookmakers. 
Assuming,  Mr.  Brolaski,  that  I  am  a  bookmaker 
and  I  want  to  bet,  now  what  is  the  modus  operandi? 

"Mr.  Brolaski :  You  pick  out  the  horse  you  want 
to  bet  on. 


Facts  and  Figures.  249 

"Senator  Nelson:    Yes. 

"Mr.  Brolaski:  You  hand  me  the  money  you 
want  to  bet.  And  suppose  there  are  five  horses  in 
the  race. 

"Senator  Nelson:  And  you  and  I  two  bettors — 
I  betting  against  you  and  you  against  me,  and  we 
pick  our  horse? 

"Mr.  Brolaski :  You  pick  your  horse.  I  do  not. 
I  have  the  whole  field  running  for  me  except  the 
horse  you  desire  to  bet  on. 

"Senator  Nelson :  Suppose  there  are  six  horses, 
and  you  are  a  bookmaker;  I  pick  one  horse,  and 
you  accept  my  bet? 

"Mr.  Brolaski :    Yes. 

"Senator  Nelson :  Now,  how  do  you  work  it  to 
beat  me  on  that  bet?     [Laughter.] 

"Mr.  Brolaski:  A  hundred  different  ways.  If 
you  wanted  to  bet  on,  say,  'Lady  Irma,'  and  the 
odds  were  2  to  1,  I  would  give  you  a  ticket  which 
said  '10  to  5  on  Lady  Irma'  to  win. 

"Senator  Nelson:    What  does  that  mean? 

"Mr.  Brolaski :  That  means  that  if  she  wins,  you 
get  the  winnings — $10  and  your  $5  that  you  bet — 
making  you  receive  $15. 

"Senator  Nelson:    But  suppose  I  lose,  what  then? 

"Mr.  Brolaski:  Then  all  you  have  is  the  ticket 
as  a  souvenir."     [Laughter.] 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

GAMBLING   ON    THE    MISSISSIPPI    RIVER. 

Since  the  early  days  of  steamboating  on  the  Mis- 
sissippi river  a  hirid  feature  of  that  traffic  has  been 
gambHng.  The  gentlemanly  planter  of  the  South 
indulged  almost  exclusively  in  the  game  of  poker. 
In  modern  days  other  games  have  been  introduced 
on  steamboats. 

A  few  years  ago  there  were  put  into  commission 
exclusively  for  gambling  purposes  two  large  Missis- 
sippi river  steamboats.  One  was  the  "City  of  Prov- 
idence" and  the  other  the  "Corwin  H.  Spencer." 

For  years,  during  the  months  of  trafific  on  the 
Mississippi,  these  big  steamers  could  be  seen  lying 
at  the  wharf  on  the  St.  Louis  levee. 

I  controlled  both  of  the  steamers  named,  and  was 
the  moving  spirit  and  promoter  in  carrying  on  the 
awful  and  nefarious  gambling  stunts  that  were 
pulled  off  on  these  boats  for  several  seasons. 

In  referring  to  and  relating  my  Mississippi  river 
experiences  in  gambling  I  do  so  to  caution  the  un- 
wary, and  to  further  evidence  how  futile  it  is  for 
anyone  to  hope  to  beat  any  gambling  game. 

What  was  done  on  my  steamboats  is  no  more 
than  has  always  been  done  and  is  now  being  done 
on  land.  No  gambling  house  was  ever  run  on  the 
square,  excepting  Monte  Carlo.  The  odds  in  a  gam- 
bling game  are  sufficiently  against  the  player  even 

250 


Gambling  on  INIissi.ssippi  River.       251 

where  honesty  prevails ;  but  when  there  is  added  to 
these  odds  trickery  and  fraud,  practiced  to  beat  the 
player,  he  is  a  dead-sure  loser.  Let  the  reader  take 
my  word  for  this. 

The  sunnner  of  the  St.  Louis  World's  Fair,  1904, 
was  the  occasion  for  securing  loads  of  people  on  my 
boats,  who  were  lured  there  by  cheap  excursion 
rates,  a  trip  on  the  river  and  opportunity  for  gam- 
bling at  any  game. 

The  boats  were  equipped  with  every  known  de- 
vice There  were  slot  machines  so  geared  as  to  win 
eighty  per  cent,  of  the  money  of  the  players  ;  cologne 
joints,  bird  cage,  squeeze  spindle,  eight-dice  cloth, 
shell  game,  count  down,  crap  game,  faro  bank,  rou- 
lette wheel,  keno  and  poker  games ;  every  one  con- 
ducted dishonestly  and  fixed  to  rob  the  players. 

My  boats  were  run  under  the  semblance  of  ex- 
cursion trips,  but  the  real  purpose  of  their  operation 
was  to  pack  them  with  men,  women  and  children, 
and  then  entice  them  to  play  in  the  various  gam- 
bling games  that  were  presented  to  them.  Under 
the  guise  of  pleasure  outings,  the  excursion  trips 
of  these  boats  were  turned  into  gambling  orgies. 
Daily,  including  Sundays,  and  nightly  people  w^erc 
lured  to  the  boats  by  fares  that  would  scarcely  pay 
for  the  cost  of  printing  the  tickets.  That  everyone 
might  be  privileged  to  bet,  sums  were  accepted  as 
low  as  ten  cents. 

The  municipal  authorities  of  St.  Louis,  the  state 
authorities  and  the  United  States  ofBcers  attempted 


252  Easy  Money. 

on  various  occasions  to  stop  the  gambling  games 
on  my  boats,  but  without  avail.  I  successfully  de- 
fied the  whole  combination 

During  the  summer  of  the  St.  Louis  World's  Fair, 
a  river  steamer,  called  the  "Mark  Twain,"  in  honor 
of  Missouri's  distinguished  son,  was  equipped  with 
a  battery  and  sent  out  to  arrest  the  operators  of  the 
gambling  games  on  my  boats,  and  to  stop  the 
games.  On  the  day  this  intended  effort  was  to  be 
made  by  the  authorities,  members  of  the  Grand 
Jury,  Chief  of  Police  Kiely,  and  Harbor  Commis- 
sioner Whyte  had  a  conference.  But  in  vain.  My 
boats  went  out  as  usual,  and  gambling  was  carried 
on  without  molestation. 

One  of  the  tactics  tried  by  the  public  authori- 
ties was  to  put  a  number  of  police  officers  on  one  of 
my  boats  in  disguise.  After  having  steamed  out  into 
the  river,  and  the  gambling  games  were  in  full  blast, 
these  officers  attempted  to  make  arrests.  Being 
out  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  I 
had  the  officers  seized,  ran  my  boat  ashore,  and 
threw  them  off  into  the  mud.  In  order  to  evade 
the  seizure  of  the  gambling  paraphernalia,  all  the 
devices  were  taken  off  the  boat  before  landing  at 
the  wharf,  put  on  a  tug,  and  carried  to  the  Illinois 
shore,  and  there  kept  until  the  next  excursion,  and 
again  put  on  the  boat  while  in  mid-stream. 

Alas  for  this  awful  life !  It  had  its  tragic  end. 
The  summer  of  1905  had  passed.  The  "Corwin  H. 
Spencer"  lay  at  the  St.  Louis  levee,  and  was  being 


Gambling  on  Mississippi  River.       253 

thoroughly  renovated  preparatory  to  taking  her  to 
New  Orleans,  and  there  running  gambling  excur- 
sions on  the  river. 

It  was  October  12th,  1905,  at  four  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  A  number  of  men  were  working  in  the 
hold.  I  was  there  superintending  the  last  touches 
of  the  work. 

Suddenly  there  was  a  cry  of  fire,  and  flames 
burst  forth  from  the  deck-room,  amid  ship.  A 
quantity  of  varnish  and  paint  were  there,  which 
gave  speed  to  the  devouring  flames. 

The  alarm  was  given  to  the  men  working  in  the 
hold.  It  seemed  for  the  instant  that  they  would 
be  destroyed  by  the  rapidly  spreading  flames.  I 
stood  by  directing  and  assisting  their  escape.  As 
the  last  man  came  out  the  upper  part  of  the  steamer 
gave  way,  and  while  attempting  to  escape  I  was 
caught  beneath  the  timbers.  It  seemed  that  my 
end  had  come.  The  weight  held  me  fast,  and  the 
heat  was  singeing  my  clothes,  when  the  boat's 
watchman,  Fred  Hemmerley,  and  a  negro  deck- 
hand, known  as  "Dutch  Frank,"  sprang  to  my  res- 
cue, tore  away  the  timbers  that  bore  me,  down,  and 
carried  me  safe  to  shore. 

In  less  than  a  half-hour  my  beautiful  boat  had 
burned  to  the  water's  edge,  a  total  loss. 

The  summer  of  1907  was  the  last  that  I  operated 
either  of  my  boats  in  the  gambling  business.  Dur- 
ing the  winter  of  1909-10  the  "City  of  Providence" 
was  laid  up  at  the  St.  Louis  levee.    In  March,  1910, 


254  Easy  Money. 

when  the  river  broke,  this  boat  was  totally  de- 
stroyed by  the  crushing  ice. 

The  two  steamers,  the  "City  of  Providence"  and 
the  "Corwin  H.  Spencer,"  were  really  the  successors 
in  passenger  traffic  on  the  Mississippi  River,  be- 
tween New  Orleans  and  St.  Louis,  of  the  famous 
steamers,  the  "Natchez"  and  the  "Robert  E.  Lee." 
My  boats  were  larger,  more  modern  and  cost  more, 
and  were  the  last  of  the  palatial  steamers  engaged 
in  the  passenger  traffic  on  the  Lower  Mississippi. 

During  the  years  I  was  engaged  in  running  my 
boats  in  the  gambling  business  I  made  one  memor- 
able trip  with  the  "Corwin  H.  Spencer."  When 
John  Hay  was  Secretary  of  State  he  visited  St. 
Louis  during  the  World's  Fair  held  there.  He  and 
my  father,  Captain  H.  W.  Brolaski,  were  old 
friends.  Mr.  Hay  expressed  a  desire  to  take  a  trip 
on  the  Mississippi,  and  especially  to  have  the  ex- 
perience of  passing  under  the  Merchants'  Bridge, 
which  he  had  never  seen  before.  He  had  not  been 
on  the  Mississippi  since  the  days  when  he  had  the 
experience  that  gave  him  the  inspiration  to  write 
"Jim  Bludso  of  the  Prairie  Belle,"  a  poem  descrip- 
tive of  the  burning  of  a  river  steamer  and  a  tribute 
to  the  heroism  of  a  pilot. 

"Jim  Bludso,"  the  pilot  of  the  "Prairie  Belle," 
had  turned  her  to  shore  while  she  was  wrapped  in 
flames  stood  at  his  post  until  all  had  escaped,  and 
then  was  lost  in  the  burning  craft. 

Mr.  Hay  described  the  climax  thus: 


Gambling  on  INIississippi  River,        255 

"Through  the  hot,  black  breath  of  the  burnin' 
boat 

Jim  Bludso's  voice  was  heard, 
And  they  all  had  trust  in  his  cussedness, 

And  knowed  he  would  keep  his  word. 
And,  sure's  you're  born,  they  all  got  off 

Afore  the  smokestacks  fell, — 
And  Bludso's  ghost  went  up  alone 

In  the  smoke  of  the  Prairie  Belle." 

I  told  Mr.  Hay  that  I  had  about  two  inches  be- 
tween the  smokestacks  and  the  trestle  of  the  Mer- 
chants' Bridge,  but  that  I  would  take  him  under  if 
the  stacks  went  down.  I  prepared  for  the  emer- 
gency, which  came.  The  steamer  passed  under  the 
bridge,  but  the  smokestacks  were  wrecked. 

I  ran  the  boat  up  the  river  a  mile,  turned  back 
and  went  to  Jefferson  Barracks,  and  then  returned 
to  the  foot  of  Olive  Street. 

During  this  river  ride  a  lunch  was  served. 
Among  those  at  the  table  were  Secretary  Hay, 
Marshall  Field,  Corwin  H.  Spencer  and  my  father, 
Captain  H.  W.  Brolaski.  I  remember  that  my 
father  offered  to  wager  with  the  other  three  that 
he  would  outlive  all  of  them,  he  then  being  the 
oldest  of  them.  The  prompting  of  the  wager  was 
a  prophecy ;  the  three  have  passed  away.  My  father 
is  still  living  and  in  good  health. 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 

GAMBLING  GAMES  AND  DEVICES. 

POKER. 

Draw  poker,  as  it  was  played  many  years  ago, 
was  more  a  game  of  men  than  a  game  of  cards,  yet 
as  a  game  of  cards  it  was  and  is  yet,  when  fairly 
played,  more  scientific  than  bridge  whist.  In  whist 
you  are  largely  at  the  mercy  of  your  partner,  and -if 
he  or  she  prove  inattentive,  or  lack  memory  or  in- 
telligence, you  will  lose,  however  wise  you  may  be 
at  the  game.  Bulwer,  in  one  of  his  novels  tells  of 
a  gentleman  and  his  wife  who  made  many  shekels 
by  a  simple  code  of  signals.  If  either  wanted  the 
other  to  lead  a  low  club  the  signal  would  be,  "come 
love,  we  are  waiting  for  you."  If  a  high  club,  it 
would  be,  "come  hurry."  If  a  high  diamond,  it 
would  be  "hasten,  dear."  If  a  low  diamond,  it 
would  be,  "love,  do  play,"  and  so  on. 

In  poker  the  commercial  value  of  the  hands 
changes  constantly.  The  value  of  a  hand  diminishes 
as  the  number  of  players  increases.  A  pair  of  aces 
is  a  good  hand  with  two  players  "in,"  while  it  is 
worthless  with  five  players  "in." 

But  poker  is  a  game  which  as  originally  played 
gave  scope  for  the  faculties  of  memory,  observation, 
rapid  reasoning,  accurate  calculation,  judgment  of 
men,   and   command  of  countenance.     Those   who 

256 


Cheating  by  Knocking  One's  Checks  Off  Table. 
As  he  picks  them  up  the  man  to  the  left  "comes  in"  with  a  cold  deck. 


(17) 


Copping  Checks. 
257 


258  Easy  Money. 

cannot  or  who  do  not  exercise  the  latter  quality 
have  no  business  in  the  game.  Those  who  can 
themselves  preserve  the  stolidity  of  a  graven  image, 
the  while  they  notice  and  remember  the  peculiarity 
of  their  fellows,  have  a  decided  advantage. 

I  remember  a  poker  game  in  which  one  of  the 
players  would,  whenever  he  had  a  good  hand,  turn 
his  head  and  spit  Another  would  exhibit  a  white 
streak  in  the  middle  of  his  nose,  and  a  third  would 
announce  his  bet  in  a  loud  voice  if  he  was  bluffing, 
while  if  he  had  a  good  hand  he  would  silently  shove 
his  chips  to  the  center. 

In  old  days  poker  was  played  without  a  limit, 
other  than  the  amount  in  front  of  the  player.  Now 
each  bet  is  limited  usually  to  a  sum  equal  to  five 
times  the  amount  of  the  ante.  In  the  public  games 
in  New  York  City  and  elsewhere  each  player  antes 
one  dollar  and  the  limit  of  each  bet  is  five  dollars. 
With  seven  players  and  seven  dollars  in  the  pot 
what  is  the  use  of  trying  to  bluff  with  a  five-dollar 
bet?  Somebody  will  be  sure  to  call  you,  whereas  if 
you  could  bet  twenty  dollars  then,  that  somebody 
would  be  apt  to  let  you  get  away  with  the  bluff. 
On  the  other  hand  if  you  bet  five  dollars  and  one 
raised  you  five  dollars  you  would  not  call,  if  you  are 
wise,  unless  you  have  a  very  good  hand. 

A  pair  of  eights  is  an  average  hand;  sevens  are 
worthless,  and  nines  are  of  small  value.  Even 
where  jack-pots  are  not  played  a  poker  expert  will 
not,  unless  he  is  last  or  next  to  the  last  in,  bet  on 


Gambling  Games  and  Devices.         259 

less  than  jacks.  If  a  jack-pot  is  played  and  some- 
body else  opens  it,  he  will  not  come  in  on  less  than 
queens,  for  it  is  certain  that  the  opener  has  jacks 
or  better.  He  has  you  bettered  to  begin  with  and 
his  chances  of  improving  his  hand  are  equal  to  your 
chances  of  improving  yours.  If  you  have  a  four- 
flush  or  a  straight-four,  you  have  about  one  chance 
in  five  of  improving  your  hand,  and  unless  there  is 
on  the  table  five  times  as  much  as  you  bet  you  will 
stay  out. 

In  the  so-called  fair  games  in  the  city  only  jack- 
pots are  played  and  the  house  takes  twenty-five 
cents  out  of  each  pot.  Twenty  hands  an  hour  are 
played  on  an  average  for  twelve  hours  in  each  twen- 
ty-four hours,  and  each  table  averages  sixty  dollars 
a  day  to  the  house.  If  you  are  one  of  five  players, 
you  contribute  a  dollar  an  hour  to  the  "kitty."  Not 
a  great  sum  certainl}'-,  but  the  aggregate  of  it 
amounts  to  a  considerable  amount. 

Each  house  has  a  stafif  of  "players  for  the  house." 
These  gentlemen  sit  in  to  make  up  a  game  at  any 
table  which  lacks  the  requisite  number  of  players 
from  the  outside.  They  receive  for  their  services 
their  meals,  drinks  and  cigars  and  ten  per  cent,  of 
their  winnings  in  each  game;  the  other  ninety  per 
cent,  going  to  the  house.  If  they  lose  they  con- 
tribute nothing  toward  the  loss,  but  they  don't  lose 
very  often ;  for  if  they  fail  to  win,  or  at  lea.st  "break 
even,"  the  house  will  retire  them. 


260 


Easy  Money. 


Marked  Cards.     Notice  the  difference  in  cards  where  arrow  points. 


Gambling  Games  and  Devices.         261 

They  do  not  cheat.  They  play  fairly,  except  that 
they  play  into  each  other's  hands.  They  seldom 
open  a  pot.  When  the  pot  is  opened  by  a  player, 
both  keep  out,  or  if  one  stays  in,  then  the  other 
stays  out.  Sometimes,  not  often,  they  cross-fire  a 
player  who  sits  between  them,  and  raise  and  re-raise 
him  until  he  retires  with  the  best  hand. 

Such  is  the  playing  in  the  "fair"  houses.  How 
about  that  which  is  not  fair?  Dealing  from  the  bot- 
tom, marked  cards,  hold-outs  by  means  of  "snap- 
ping Andy's,"  and  divers  other  modes  of  cheating 
are  resorted  to  to  relieve  the  stranger  of  his  bank 
roll. 

Unfair  games  are  seldom  played  in  the  regular 
poker  houses.  Such  practices  are  more  common  in 
private  "snaps."  I  call  to  mind  the  case  of  a  prom- 
inent Californian  who  was  invited  by  an  old  ac- 
quaintance to  take  part  in  an  old-fashioned  unlim- 
ited game  at  the  Lindell  Hotel  in  St  Louis.  Two 
afifable,  "pufifect  gentlemen,"  completed  the  quar- 
tette. The  game  had  proceeded  about  fifteen  min- 
utes. The  Californian  had  neither  lost  nor  won 
anything  of  consequence  when  his  turn  came  to 
deal. 

In  a  jocose  spirit  he  said :  "Boys,  I  am  going  to 
kiss  the  queen  of  diamonds  for  luck."  He  ran 
through  the  pack,  but  the  queen  of  diamonds  was 
not  there,  neither  was  the  queen  of  hearts,  nor  yet 
the  queen  of  clubs;  only  the  queen  of  spades  re- 
mained.    There  was  a  solemn  silence  around  the 


262 


Easy  Money. 


Various  Card  Holdouts. 


Gambling  Gcames  and  Devices.         263 

festive  board.  One  of  the  party  faintly  remarked : 
"The  deck  appears  to  be  short."  "Yes,"  said  the 
Californian,  dryly,  "the  queens  are  like  the  roast- 
turkey  on  the  dinner  menu,  they  are  'all  out,'  and 
they  have  stepped  out  so  recently  and  so  suddenly. 
Why,  only  last  hand  you  had  a  queen  full,  don't  you 
remember?  Gentlemen,  I  fear  that  my  wife  is  sick; 
I  must  go  and  see  her.  I  have  in  front  of  me  exactly 
the  amount  of  my  stake ;  please  cash  it,  Mr.  Banker. 
Oh,  thank  you,  my  share  of  the  jack-pot  is  three 
dollars,  I  believe.  You  can  give  that  to  the  holder 
of  the  missing  queens.     Good  evening,  gentlemen." 

Down  stairs  an  hour  later  the  Californian  met  the 
friend  who  had  introduced  him  to  the  game,  "I 
am  awful  sorry  for  what  happened,"  said  he,  "and 
Johnny  was  sorrier  than  I.  He  said  that  he  had 
acted  like  a  damned  fool  in  holding  those  three 
queens  out  so  early  in  the  game.  He  said  that  he 
could  have  trimmed  you  out  of  your  bank  roll  any- 
how, without  cheating." 

"I  accept  your  apology,"  said  the  Californian. 

You  can  be  cheated  at  draw  or  stud  poker  by 
bottom  dealing,  the  spread,  marked  cards,  hold  outs, 
strippers,  reflectors,  shiners,  ring-coat  spider,  bug, 
and  a  hundred  other  ways 

Odds  against  holding  hands  before  the  draw  in 
poker: 

One  pair  1^  to  1 

Two  pairs 20  to  1 

Three  of  a  kind 45  to  1 


264  Easy  Money. 

Straight   254  to  1 

Flush   508  to  1 

Full  Hand  693  to  1 

Four  of  a  kind 4,164  to  1 

Straight  Flush 64,973  to  1 

Royal  Flush 649,739  to  1 

When  playing  draw  poker  the   chances   against 
helping  hands  in  the  draw  are  as  follows : 
Drawing  to  The  odds  against. 

Ace    Chance  against 

a  pair    4  to  1 

Ace  and  King Chance  against 

•   a  pair  of  either 3  to  1 

One  pair   Chance  against 

improving 2}4  to  1 

Two  pairs   Chance  against 

full   hand    11  to  1 

Threes    Chance  against 

improvement    7  to  1 

Open-end    straight    Chance  against 

fillmg  5  to  1 

Interior  straight    Chance  against 

filling   11   to  1 

Bobtail    flush    Chance  against 

filling   \y2  to   1 

Four-straight  flush   Chance  against 

improvement   4  to  I 

Four-straight  flush    Chance  against 

filling  24  to  1 


Gambling  Games  and  Devices.         265 

Interior  straight  flush Chance  against 

improvement   4  to  1 

Interior  straight  flush Chance  against 

filling  46  to  1 

Three-card   straight    Chance  against 

filling  24  to  1 

Three-card  straight  flush.  .Chance  against 

straight   or   flush 12  to  1 

Stud  poker  is  played  by  two  or  more  individuals, 
usually  in  a  gambling  house  where  they  have 
marked  cards  in  which  the  first  card  is  laid  face 
down  on  the  table.  The  gambling-house  keeper  al- 
ways has  a  capper  or  booster  sitting  in  the  game, 
who  knows  the  marked  cards  thoroughly  and  can 
tell  what  the  other  players'  down  card  is.  The 
second  card  dealt  off  is  turned  face  up,  and  so  on 
until  there  have  been  five  cards  dealt  off. 

There  are  very  few  square  stud  poker  games  in 
the  country.  Even  if  the  game  is  run  on  the 
square  and  without  any  cheating,  the  house,  or 
dealer,  takes  from  ten  to  twenty-five  cents  out  of 
each  pot  in  a  fair-sized  game.  The  take-off  will 
average  fourteen  dollars  per  hour.  This  is  called 
the  "kitty."  You  can  imagine  how  long  it  would 
take  to  fatten  the  lone  and  forlorn  "kitty"  at  the 
opening  by  allowing  a  ten-hour  sitting.  "Kitty" 
would  be  pretty  fat  and  sweet — one  hundred  and 
forty  dollars.  Perhaps  there  would  be  one  or  two 
winners  at  the  table ;  the  other  four  or  five  would  be 
losers.     But  you  don't  win  anything  from  the  house 


266  Easy  Money. 

in  case  you  are  lucky.  The  house  gets  its  rake-off, 
and  it  is  just  as  sure  of  this  as  death  or  taxes.  Any- 
sane  man  who  will  stop  and  figure  up  the  percent- 
age against  him  in  an  absolutely  square  game  will 
quit  playing  stud  poker. 

FARO. 

Faro  is  played  with  a  deck  of  cards  placed  faces 
up  in  a  little  nickel  plated  box,  open  on  the  top  and 
side.  A  spring  in  the  bottom  of  the  box  holds  in 
place  the  plate  on  which  the  cards  are  placed.  The 
dealer  pulls  from  the  box  two  cards,  one  at  a  time ; 
the  first  card  appearing  under  the  pulled  card  loses, 
and  the  next  one  wins. 

On  a  layout  on  the  top  of  a  table  in  front  of  the 
dealer  are  painted  thirteen  cards,  beginning  with 
the  ace  and  running  thence  through  the  other 
twelve  cards  of  a  suit,  ending  with  the  king. 

All  bets  are  even,  except  that  on  the  last  turn  the 
player  will  be  paid  four  for  one  if  he  "calls"  the 
cards  in  the  order  in  which  they  appear. 

The  legitimate  percentage  of  the  game  is  in  the 
"splits;"  that  is,  where  two  cards  of  the  same  de- 
nomination come  out  together  the  dealer  takes  one- 
half  of  the  bet  on  that  card. 

After  three  cards  have  been  pulled  of  the  same 
denomination,  the  remaining  card  of  that  denomina- 
tion is  called  a  "case,"  and  as  it  cannot  be  "split," 
the  player  who  bets  upon  it  has  an  absolutely  even 
chance  to  win.  That  is  he  would  have  an  even 
chance  to  win  if  the  game  was  played  fairly,  which 


268  Easy  Money. 

is  not  always  the  case.  Even  in  games  which  are 
ordinarily  fairly  played  there  is  a  reserved  poten- 
tiality of  cheating  which  can  be  invoked  and  often 
is  invoked  to  relieve  a  drunken  or  inexperienced 
player  of  his  bank  roll. 

The  cards  in  a  faro  deck  are  sometimes  nicked 
on  their  sides  so  that  the  dealer  can  with  his  finger 
tell  what  cards  will  next  be  pulled.  If  the  pulling 
of  them  in  their  order  will  cause  the  player  to  win, 
then  a  skillful  dealer  can  and  will  pull  two  cards  in- 
stead of  one ;  and  by  collusion  with  the  case  keeper, 
the  turn  will  be  so  recorded  that  the  trick  will  not 
be  known. 

A  favorite  swindle  of  faro  men  is  perpetrated  by 
one  of  their  members  making  the  acquaintance  of  an 
available  stranger  whose  antecedents  have  been  pre- 
viously ascertained.  The  stranger  is  informed  that 
his  new  acquaintance  is  a  faro  dealer  who  has  been 
injured  by  the  proprietor  of  the  gambling  house  in 
which  he  is  employed.  The  stranger  is  told  that  if 
he  will  come  to  that  house  and  gamble  the  dealer 
will  throw  off  the  game  and  they  will  divide  the 
winnings.  An  adjournment  is  taken  to  the  stran- 
ger's room  where  the  gambler  produces  a  pack  of 
cards  and  a  faro  box,  and  illustrates  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  stranger  the  manner  in  which  he  can 
"throw  off"  the  house.  An  appointment  is  made 
for  that  or  the  next  evening  when  the  stranger  is  to 
visit  the  gambling  house  and  the  scheme  is  to  be 
carried  out. 


Gambling  Games  and  Devices.         269 


Two  Bank  Layouts,  Case  Keeper  and  Box  Controlled  by  Dealer. 


270  Easy  Money. 


Faro  Bank  Table. 

"The  limit  at  the  house  is  one  hundred  dollars, 
and  in  order  to  make  big  money,"  says  the  gambler, 
"you  want  to  bet  the  limit  every  time.  You  want  to 
lose  a  bet  occasionally,  or  the  proprietor  will  sus- 
pect us,  and  you  had  better  take  several  hundred 
dollars  or  even  as  much  as  a  thousand  dollars  with 
you  and  exhibit  it  so  that  the  proprietor  can  see  you 
are  no  'piker.'  " 

To  this  the  victim  readily  agrees,  and  the  next 
night  he  makes  his  appearance  in  front  of  the  faro 
table,  and,  tossing  a  roll  of  five  hundred  dollars  to 
the  dealer,  exclaims  in  a  careless  tone,  "give  me  a 
stack  of  checks."  The  yictim  proceeds  to  bet  a 
hundred  dollars  a  time.  He  loses  four  bets  of  a 
hundred  dollars  each  in  succession,  on  tips  from  the 
dealer,  which  he  supposed  were  all  right  but  which 
proved  all  wrong.  Then  with  undiminished  confi- 
dence he  places  his  last  hundred  on  the  ace,  which 
card  the  dealer  had  indicated  he  would  pull  to  win. 
And  then,  alas  for  the  defeat  of  his  high-raised  ex- 


Gambling  Games  and  Devices.        271 


Marked  Cards.     Notice  difference  in  cards  where  arrow  points. 


272  Easy  Money. 

pectations,  the  proprietor  says  to  the  dealer:  ''Here, 
Billy,  give  me  your  seat;  I  will  deal  for  a  little 
while." 

The  proprietor  assumes  the  dealer's  seat,  and  the 
next  time  out  of  the  box  the  remaining  one  hundred 
of  the  victim  finds  its  four  brethren  in  the  dealer's 
cash  drawer,  and  the  victim  rises  and  departs,  and 
returns  to  his  hotel  as  Roderigo  proposed  to  return 
to  Venice,  "with  less  money  and  more  wit." 
WHIST. 

Whist  or  bridge  whist  is  one  of  the  popular  gam- 
bling games  of  the  world,  and  has  been  the  cause 
of  breaking  up  more  homes  than  any  other  form  of 
gambling. 

The  ways  of  cheating  in  a  whist  game  are  so  nu- 
merous that  it  would  require  a  volume  to  describe 
them. 

Suppose  that  hearts  were  trumps,  and  that  you 
held  in  your  hand  the  ace,  king,  queen,  jack,  ten  and 
nine  of  hearts,  the  ace,  king  and  queen  of  diamonds, 
the  ace  and  king  of  clubs  and  the  queen  and  jack  of 
spades.  You  would  almost,  Mr.  Lamb,  be  willing 
to  wager  your  existence  that  you  would  take  the  odd 
trick  with  this  hand.  Well,  you  would  not,  for  the 
simple  reason  that  if  a  hand  of  this  kind  were 
passed  to  you  in  a  framed-up  game,  one  of  your  op- 
ponents would  have  the  eight,  seven,  six,  five,  four, 
three  and  deuce  of  hearts,  and  the  ace,  king,  ten, 
nine,  eight  and  seven  of  spades.  He,  having  one 
more  heart  than  you,  gets  in  at  any  time,  picks  up 


Gambling  Games  and  Devices. 


273 


your  spades,  makes  all  of  his  good  and  makes  the 
odd  trick,  no  matter  what  hands  you  and  your  op- 
ponent's partner  may  hold. 

THREE   CARD   MONTE. 
Three  card  monte  is  one  of  the  most  deceiving  of 
card  games,  and  is  played  for  the  sole  purpose  of 


(18) 


274  Easy  Money. 

robbing  the  innocent.  It  has  been  played  to  such 
an  extent  that  it  would  not  seem  possible  to  find 
anyone  so  densely  ignorant  as  to  make  a  wager 
on  it. 

Three  card  monte  and  the  shell  game,  elsewhere 
described,  are  played  in  the  same  way  and  for  the 
same  purpose.  Three  cards  or  three  shells  are  used. 
When  played  with  three  cards,  two  of  the  cards  are 
the  same  on  the  face,  the  third  being  of  a  different 
color  or  figure.  The  player  holds  two  cards  in  one 
hand  and  one  in  the  other,  showing  you  the  face  of 
the  odd  card  and  offering  to  bet  you  that  you  can- 
not select  it  after  he  throws  it  on  the  table. 

If  anyone  ever  tries  to  induce  you  to  make  such  a 
bet  don't  hesitate,  but  walk  away ;  for  you  will  lose 
your  money  as  sure  as  you  breathe. 

THIRTY-ONE. 

There  is  a  game  that  can  be  played  with  or  with- 
out dice,  called  "Thirty-One."  The  bet  is  made  on 
the  assertion  that  the  dealer  can  count  thirty-one 
first  by  calling  numbers,  no  one  to  be  greater  than 
six,  which  is  the  highest  dice  mark. 

The  dealer  will  name  the  first  number,  or  permit 
you  to  do  so.  To  illustrate :  If  you  have  the  privi- 
lege of  naming  the  first  number,  say  that  you  call 
four.  The  dealer  will  call  six,  which,  added  to  four, 
makes  a  total  of  ten.  You  call  another  number,  say 
five,  which,  added  to  ten,  makes  fifteen.  The  dealer 
will  then  call  two,  making  the  total  seventeen.  If 
your  next  number  be  three,  the  total  will  be  twenty. 


Gambling  Games  and  Devices.        275 


'O 


The  dealer  will  call  four,  making  the  total  tv/enty- 
four.  It  is  your  turn  to  call  next,  and,  as  you  can- 
not call  a  number  greater  than  six,  we  will  assume 
that  you  call  the  number  two.  This  will  make  the 
total  twenty-six.  It  is  the  dealer's  call  next,  and  he 
will,  of  course,  call  five,  which  makes  the  total 
thirty-one. 

This  innocent  looking  little  game  has  often  been 
used  by  sharks  to  relieve  the  unwary  of  their  money. 
Its  secret  is  that  the  winner  must  call  such  numbers 
as  to  make  them,  when  he  calls,  added  to  those  al- 
ready called,  equal  three,  ten,  seventeen  and  twenty- 
four.  If  the  numbers  yqu  call,  added  to  the  previous 
numbers,  will  make  this  combination,  then  you  will 
be  able  to  count  thirty-one  before  your  opponent. 

DICE  SHAKING  OR  CRAP  GAME. 

Dice  shaking  for  cigars  and  for  drinks  in  cigar 
stands  and  saloons  is  a  common  practice  throughout 
the  principal  cities  of  the  United  States. 

Little  do  the  outsiders  realize  that  eighty-five  per 
cent,  of  all  dice  are  either  loaded  or  controlled  by 
an  electric  battery  under  the  counter,  and  that 
therefore  the  house  will  win  eighty-five  per  cent,  of 
the  games. 

If  smokers  and  drinkers  must  indulge  themselves, 
they  had  better  pay  the  legitimate  price  asked  for 
the  liquor  and  cigars,  and  not  try  to  win  them,  or 
allow  their  greed  to  trap  ^theni  into  trying  to  obtain 
something  for  nothing,  because  that  is  what  they  do, 


276 


Easy  Money. 


Crap  Game  Layout. 


Klondike  Layout. 

Does  it  never  occur  to  them  that  the  cigar-stand 
keepers  and  the  saloon  men  cannot  pay  their  rent 
and  electric  light  and  other  bills,  and  give  their  cus- 
tomers an  equal  chance?     You  don't  pay  any  rent. 


Gambling  Games  and  Devices. 


277 


Loaded  Dice. 

You  are  under  no  expense.  Don't  you  see  how  much 
the  worst  of  it  you  have  in  dice  shaking  for  drinks 
and  cigars? 

There  is  not  a  strictly  fair  crap  game  played  any- 
where today.  The  chance  is  always  with  the  dealer, 
the  percentage  is  always  with  him  and  you  are  up 
against  a  brace  game,  either  with  loaded  dice,  or  a 
battery,  or  tops  or  house  players. 

I  have  seen  crap  shooters  like  John  Winn  and  Lit- 
tle Mark  Gumberts  of  St.  Louis  take  a  set  of  dice 
and  manipulate  them  so  that  they  can  put  any  num- 
ber up  for  you  or  any  combination  that  you  might 
ask  for. 

HYRONEMUS   OR   CHUCK-A-LUCK. 

There  are  various  ways  of  playing  the  game  of 
hyronemus  or  chuck-a-luck.  Usually  it  is  played 
with  three  large  dice  through  a  cup.  They  pay  off 
on  numbers  from  one  to  six.  If  the  numbers  come 
two  sixes,  they  pay  you  double ;  three  sixes  you  get 
three  to  one  for  your  money. 

This  game  is  also  played  with  three  dice  thrown 
into  a  wash  bowl  or  wooden  bowl,  and  is  sometimes 
played  with  three  dice  in  a  bird  cage  with  a  leather 


Easy  Money. 


Hyronemus  Layout, 
Bowl,  Cup  and  Cage. 


Gambling  Games  and  Devices. 


279 


top  and  bottom,  the  bird  cage  being  revolved,  caus- 
ing the  dice  to  shake  up  thoroughly  and  settle. 
They  pay  off  according  to  the  numbers  shown  on 
top. 

Any  one  of  the  various  ways  of  playing  this  game 
affords  opportunity  to  cheat,  either  by  an  electric 
battery  or  loaded  dice. 

This  is  quite  a  favorite  game  at  country  fairs.  As 
a  side-show  game,  it  is  one  of  the  best  paying  games 
known  to  the  gambling  fraternity.  The  outsider 
who  plays  it  has  no  chance  on  earth  to  beat  it,  be- 
cause it  is  controlled  by  electric  batteries  or  loaded 
dice. 

DICE  TOP. 

An  innocent  looking  little  gambling  device.  The 
pin  through  the  center  is  movable,  if  you  know  how 
to  work  it.    In  picture  shown  here  it  is  set  for  high 


Dice  Top, 


280  Easy  Money. 

numbers.     It  is  a  great  bar-room  game  for  drinks, 
cigars  and  money. 

THE  EIGHT  DICE  CLOTH. 

The  eight-dice  cloth  is  one  of  the  most  laughable 
games  imaginable.  The  dealer  will  measure  off  a 
piece  of  ordinary  oil  cloth  and  paint  numbers  on  it, 
running  from  fourteen  to  forty-eight,  with  combina- 
tions. Then  he  takes  a  dice  box  with  eight  dice  in 
it,  and  boosters  will  be  paid  to  run  the  game. 

The  dealer  will  shake  the  box,  throw  the  dice  out 
on  the  table  and  count  them  up.  The  boosters,  or 
cappers,  will  play  in  the  game  and  shout  with  coun- 
terfeit glee  when  the  game  keeper  calls  out  a  win- 
ning number  that  they  are  on. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

MONTE  CARLO  AND  ROULETTE. 

The  north  shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  especially 
that  portion  of  it  which  extends  from  Mentone  to 
Nice,  and  which  is  known  as  the  Rivera,  has  been 
for  more  than  a  century  the  sanitarium  and  winter 
playground  of  Europe.  Southern  California  is  the 
only  country  in  the  world  that,  in  geniality  of  cli- 
mate, in  healthful  conditions  and  in  beauty  of  fo- 
liage and  fruitage,  rivals  the  land  that  lines  the 
north  shore  of  the  tideless  sea  that  stretches  from 
the  Dardanelles  to  the  Pillars  of  Hercules. 

Between  Nice  and  Mentone,  along  the  Corniche 
road,  one  may  drive  under  the  shadow  of  giant  olive 
trees  which  were  planted  during  the  reign  of  the 
first  Napoleon.  The  rocky  peninsula  on  which  is 
perched  the  little  principality  of  Monaco  is  a  mass 
of  verdure  and  flowers.  Here  is  situated  the  village 
or  town  of  Monte  Carlo,  where  is  located  the  great- 
est and  probably  the  only  absolutely  fair  gambling 
establishment  in  the  world. 

The  American  roulette  wheel  contains  thirty-eight 
compartments,  thirty-six  of  which  are  numbered 
from  one  to  thirty-six  inclusive,  and  two  of  which 
are  labeled  respectively  0  and  00.  Whenever  the 
ball  drops  into  either  of  the  O's  the  bank  takes  all 
of  the  bets  that  are  on  the  table.    The  odds  are  about 

281 


282  Easy  JNloney. 

five  per  cent,  in  favor  of  the  bank  where  the  game  is 
fairly  conducted  ;  for  the  player  bets  ninety-nine  and 
three-quarter  dollars  against  ninety-four  and  one- 
half  dollars. 

At  Monte  Carlo  the  roulette  wheels  have  only  a 
single  0  and  when  the  balls  drop  into  that  com- 
partment the  bank  takes  only  one-half  of  the  bets 
of  the  players,  thus  reducing  the  percentage  of  the 
bank  to  about  one  and  one-quarter  per  cent. ;  for  the 
player  bets  one  hundred  dollars  against  ninety-eight 
dollars  and  seventy-five  cents. 

About  as  many  people  will  bet  on  the  red  as  on 
the  black,  or  on  the  even  as  on  the  odd  numbered 
compartments.  The  bets  of  one  set  of  players  pays 
those  of  the  other  set,  and  the  profits  of  the  bank 
occur  when  the  ball  drops  into  the  zero.  Strange  as 
it  may  seem,  there  are  few  things  more  certain  than 
the  regularity  of  chance. 

Records  of  the  game  kept  at  Monte  Carlo  show 
that  in  an  hour,  or  a  day,  or  a  week's  run  of  the 
wheels  the  ball  will  drop  as  often  into  one  compart- 
ment as  another.  It  follows  that  once  in  every 
thirty-seven  times  the  zero  will  win  and  the  bank 
will  take  one-half  of  all  the  money  that  is  on  the 
table.  It  takes  about  ninety  seconds  for  each  play. 
The  tables  open  at  11  o'clock  A.M.  and  close  11 
o'clock  P.M.  The  result  is  that  each  day  the  ball 
will  drop  into  the  zero  eighteen  times. 

At  Monte  Carlo  in  a  season  the  amount  on  each 
table  at  each  play  will  average    not   less    than  five 


Monte  Carlo  and  Roulette.  283 

hundred  dollars,  and  eighteen  times  in  each  day  the 
bank  will  win  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  at  each 
table.  As  there  are  six  tables  the  profits  at  Monte 
Carlo  are  $27,000  each  day  or  over  eight  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  month.  This  is  contributed  by 
Russians,  Scandinavians,  Germans,  Frenchmen, 
Spaniards,  Italians,  Hollanders,  Britishers  and 
Americans,  for  a  period  of  six  months,  making  a 
total  of  nearly  five  millions  per  annum. 

Last  year  the  earnings  of  this  famous  gambling 
casino  were  four  million  five  hundred  dollars,  of 
which  there  were  about  two  million  dollars  paid  out 
in  expenses,  one  item  being  four  hundred  thousand 
dollars  to  avoid  publicity;  in  other  words,  hush 
money  to  the  newspapers.  The  sum  for  the  conces- 
sion paid  to  the  government  was  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  dollars. 

In  addition  to  this  the  Monaco  government  re- 
ceived two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars  as  a 
bonus.  Two  hundred  thousand  dollars  were  set 
aside  for  the  reserve  fund.  The  salaries  to  directors 
and  high  officials  connected  with  the  management 
of  the  Monte  Carlo  casino  amounted  to  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars.  The  crou- 
piers, who  in  this  country  are  called  game-keepers, 
and  their  assistants  were  paid  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  dollars.  For  theatrical  entertainments 
and  the  maintenance  of  an  orchestra,  to  the  tunes  of 
which  there  have  been  numerous  suicides  commit- 
ted, the  casino  expended  one  hundred  and  sixty-five 


284  Easy  Money. 

thousand  dollars.  For  educational  purposes  and 
donations  to  the  clergy,  the  insignificant  sum  of 
sixty  thousand  dollars  was  given.  Education  is  not 
a  leading  feature  of  the  government  of  Monaco. 

In  all  the  expense  account  at  Monte  Carlo  aggre- 
gates two  million  dollars,  leaving  the  sum  of  two 
million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  to  be  divided 
among  the  stockholders  of  the  Casino. 

A  person  who  desires  to  enter  the  Casino  at  Monte 
Carlo  must  sign  an  application  in  which  he  states 
what  is  required  to  be  stated  by  a  witness  in  court 
in  the  United  States — his  name,  age,  residence  and 
occupation.  He  is  then  given  a  card  which  he  must 
exhibit  to  the  doorkeeper  of  the  gambling  room  be- 
fore entering.  His  hat,  coat,  umbrella  and  cane  are 
left  at  the  cloak  room,  and  he  receives  a  check  for 
them.  Each  day,  on  surrendering  the  card,  he  re- 
ceives a  new  card  of  admission.  If  he  has  misbe- 
haved himself  in  any  way,  or  if  it  has  been  ascer- 
tained that  he  is  a  criminal  character,  he  will  not  get 
another  card.  No  drinking  is  allowed  in  the  gam- 
bling room,  and  no  shabbily  dressed  person  is  per- 
mitted to  enter  there. 

If  you  can  fulfill  the  necessary  conditions  you  may 
have  an  opportunity  to  bet  ten  dollars  against  nine 
dollars  and  eighty-five  cents,  as  long  as  your  money 
lasts,  in  sums  of  not  less  than  one  dollar  or  more 
than  twelve  hundred  dollars  in  any  one  bet. 

No  employee  of  the  Casino  and  no  person  engaged 
in  business  as  principal  or  employee  who  resides  at 


Monte  Carlo  and  Roulette.  285 

Mentone,  Nice,  or  Monaco,  is  allowed  to  bet  at  the 
games  there,  except  on  one  day  in  each  year.  No 
game  of  faro,  monte,  baccarat,  or  other  banking 
game  is  permitted  there. 

The  management  assigns  a  reason  for  this  dis- 
crimination that  they  will  not  run  the  risk  of  con- 
ducting a  game  the  result  of  which  is  within  the 
control  of  an  employee.  Roulette  is  absolutely  me- 
chanical in  its  operations,  and  no  croupier  can  cheat 
or  "throw  off"  the  house. 

Many  years  ago  a  California  gambler  by  the  name 
of  Teakle  won  a  large  sum  of  money  at  Monte  Carlo 
by  watching  and  recording  the  play.  His  theory 
was  that  no  roulette  machinery  is  absolutely  per- 
fect, and  that  a  very  slight  irregularity  in  the  revo- 
lutions of  the  wheel  would  throw  the  ball  more  fre- 
quently into  one  set  of  compartments  than  another. 

Armed  with  his  statistics  he  plunged  on  the  group 
of  numbers  which  had  "shown  up"  most  frequently 
the  day  before.  He  gathered  in  about  forty  thous- 
and dollars,  when  his  plan  was  discovered,  and 
thereafter  the  management  changed  the  disks  every 
night. 

In  our  own  land  the  gentlemen  who  ahe  engaged 
in  the  roulette  industry  are  not  contented  with  an 
advantage  of  five  per  cent. ;  they  assist  fortune  by 
■means  of  electricity,  and  so  control  the  wheel  and 
ball  as  to  beat  the  players. 

In  what  is  called  an  "advantage  wheel"  a  fine  cop- 
per wire  is  placed  on  the  bottom  of  the  wheel,  under 


286  Easy  Money. 

the  red  compartments.  Another  wire  is  placed  un- 
der the  black  compartments,  a  third  under  the  com- 
partments which  are  numbered  odd,  a  fourth  under 
the  even  numbered  compartments,  and  a  fifth,  sixth 
and  seventh,  under  the  first,  the  middle  and  the  last 
twelve  numbers.  These  wires  are  each  connected 
with  buttons  under  the  feet  of  the  roulette  dealer. 
The  revolving  ball  is  a  hollow  globe  of  iron  and  is 
highly  magnetized.  The  dealer  observes  that  there 
is  more  money  bet  by  the  outsiders  on  the  red  than 
on  the  black.  He  presses  the  button  which  sends  a 
current  of  electricity  into  the  black  numbers,  and 
the  magnetized  ball,  obedient  to  the  magnetic  call, 
drops  into  a  black  compartment,  and  all  who  have 
bet  on  the  red  lose  their  money,  to  the  great  profit  of 
the  bank. 

It  may  be  asked,  why  do  not  gamblers  who  are 
posted  on  the  trick  of  an  "advantage"  roulette  wheel 
bet  with  the  house  and  share  in  its  profits? 

If  a  bettor  would  do  this  several  times,  the  keen 
eye  and  intelligence  of  the  proprietor  would  detect 
that  the  bettor  knew  of  the  control  of  the  wheel  and 
ball  with  the  electrical  apparatus,  and  would  find  a 
way  to  su{Dpress  the  bettor  or  get  rid  of  him. 

A  gambler  told  me  that  while  in  Phoenix,  Arizona, 
he  visited  a  public  gaming  house  and  noticed  that 
the  roulette  wheel  was  an  "advantage"  wheel, 
whereupon  he  proceeded  to  bet  with  the  house 
against  players.  He  gathered  in  about  two  hundred 
dollars  in  the  course  of  half  an  hour,  when  he  re- 


Monte  Carlo  and  Roulette.  287 

ceived  a  tap  on  the  shoulder  and  his  interrupter  said, 
"Colonel  Brown  wants  ta  speak  to  you."  He 
stepped  aside  and  "Colonel  Brown"  said  to  him, 
"Pardner,  I  see  that  you  are  a  wise  guy.  You  have 
taken  enough  from  the  house.  Now  pull  your 
freight.  Keep  what  you  have  got.  Don't  come 
back,  and  keep  your  mouth  shut.  If  you  blab  you 
will  be  beaten  to  a  jelly." 

The  party  addressed  made  no  reply.  He  con- 
cluded that  he  would  get  some  more  easy  money, 
and  returned  to  the  roulette  table.  He  placed  a  ten 
dollar  bet  on  the  red,  observing  that  a  larger  amount 
had  been  placed  by  the  other  players  on  the  black. 
The  dealer,  doubtless  at  a  signal  from  the  proprie- 
tor, allowed  the  black  to  win,  and  was  about  to  pick 
up  the  ten  dollars,  when  the  proprietor  stepped  for- 
ward, handed  my  friend  his  ten,  and  said :  "Here, 
you  sneak  thief,  take  your  money  back.  We  don't 
want  your  game.  This  is  no  place  for  state  prison 
birds.  We  only  have  gentlemen  here.  Haven't  I 
told  you  often  enough  to  keep  away  from  here,  you 
damned  convict -*  I  won't  allow  you  to  hang  around 
looking  for  a  chance  to  pick  the  pockets  of  my  cus- 
tomers.    Get," 

And  he  got. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 

GAMES  AND  SCHEMES  OF  DECEPTION. 

There-  are  a  number  of  games  of  chance  and 
schemes  to  defraud  people  of  their  money,  which 
are  commonly  used  at  country  fairs,  circuses  and 
other  places  where  the  more  ignorant  class  of  peo- 
ple assemble.  Such  games  and  schemes  are  fixed 
and  manipulated  to  rob.  They  are  never  operated 
fairly,  but  always  dishonestly. 

The  so-called  "Midway"  of  the  beach  resorts  is 
usually  lined  with  fake  and  fraudulent  games  and 
schemes. 

In  this  chapter  will  be  found  a  description  and  ex- 
posure of  these  games  and  grafting  tricks. 

The  wheel  of  fortune,  or  big  wheel,  as  it  is  some- 
times called,  is  a  large  wheel  that  turns  on  a  pivot. 
It  is  so  constructed  that  when  it  stops  the  dial  indi- 
cates a  certain  combination  of  figures,  which  are 
painted  on  the  wheel. 

The  wheel  contains  red  and  black  strips  aboiit  two 
inches  wide  on  its  edge,  on  each  of  which  is  a  com- 
bination of  figures;  as  1,  2,  3 ;  2,  1,  3;  three  sixes,  or 
three  fives,  etc.  In  conducting  the  game  the  bettor 
is  permitted  to  select  any  number  from  one  to  six, 
inclusive.  To  win,  the  number  on  which  he  places 
his  money  must  be  indicated  by  the  dial  when  the 
wheel  stops. 

238 


Games  and  Selieiiies  of  Deception.     289 


Big  Wheel  of  Fortune  Controlled  by  Squeeze. 


(19) 


290 


Easy  ]\Ioney 


If  the  wheel  is  fairly  operated  the  chances  against 
winning  are  five  to  one.  But  it  is  rarely  the  case 
that  the  game  is  carried  on  honestly.  The  wheel 
can  be  controlled  by  what  is  called  a  "squeeze," 
which  is  a  secret  brake  working  on  the  wheel  and  is 
manipulated  by  the  foot  or  in  some  other  unexposed 
way.  In  this  manner  the  dealer  can  stop  the  wheel 
on  any  combination  of  numbers  he  pleases.  The 
"squeeze"  may  also  be  operated  by  an  electric  bat- 
tery. 

The  wheel  of  fortune  is  a  favored  one  at  country 
fairs,  side  shows  and  beach  resorts.  It  is  a  sure  way 
to  get  rid  of  your  money. 

RED  AND  BLACK  SPINDLE. 
The  red  and  black  spindle  is  a  round  device  with 
upright  nails  or  pegs.    Between  two  pegs  is  the  color 
red  and  between  the    next    two    pegs    is    the  color 


Red  and  Black  Spindle. 

black.     There  is  also  an  arrow  that  revolves  on  a 
pivot.    This  is  operated  by  the  dealer  and  stops  on 


Games  and  Seliemes  of  Deception.     291 

either  red  or  black,  but  is  controlled  absolutely  by 
the  dealer  with  a  foot  or  stomach  brake  or  an  elec- 
tric brake.  The  bettor  has  absolutely  no  chance  to 
win. 

ARROW  SPINDLE. 

The  arrow  or  number  spindle  consists  of  numbers 
ranging  from  one  to  six  with  combinations.     It  is 


Arrow  Spindle. 

something  similar  to  the  wheel  of  fortune  and  is  con- 
ducted like  the  red  and  black  spindle.  It  is  abso- 
lutely controllable  by  the  operator,  and  is  a  fleecing 
game. 

PIN   GAME. 
This  game  is  played    exactly    like    the  eight-dice 
cloth,  except  that  miniature  bowling  pins  are  used, 
but  with  the  same  results. 


292 


Easy  Money, 


Pin  Game, 
BEE-HIVE. 

The  bee-hive  game  and  the  drop-case  game  are 
played  along  lines  similar  to  those  of  the  eight-dice 
and  pin  games. 


Bee-Hive. 

KNIFE  RACK,  SHOOTING  GALLERY,  AND  OTHER 

GAMES. 

Throwing  small  rings,  and  endeavoring  to  place 
them  over  pins,  which  are  inserted  in  a  tilted  board 
at  various  angles,  seems  like  an  innocent  pastime. 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.     293 

It  is,  if  you  have  the  money  to  pay  for  the  throws. 
The  player  does  not  think  or  understand  that  the 
pins  which  bear  the  numbers  of  valuable  prizes  are 
placed  at  such  an  angle  as  to  make  it  impossible  to 
land  the  rings  on  them. 

The  same  can  be  said  of  the  cane  rack,  the  canes 
being  placed  at  impossible  angles. 

Shooting  arrows  and  air-guns  at  targets  for  prizes 
is  the  veriest  fake.  All  is  arranged  so  as  to  defeat 
every  effort  to  win  anything  from  the  proprietor. 

It  may  be  fun  throwing  balls  at  a  negro's  head, 
stuck  through  a  stretched  canvas ;  but  never  bet 
your  money  that  you  can  hit  the  head.  Not  only 
can  the  negro  dodge  the  balls,  but  the  balls  are  so 
made,  in  weighting  them  more  on  one  side  than  the 
other,  that  they  cannot  be  thrown  accurately. 

BOOKMAKER'S  WHEEL. 
The  bookmaker's  wheel  is  similar  to  the  roulette 
wheel,  with  this  difference :  it  stands  on  a  pivot, 
tilted  a  little.  The  wheel  is  in  a  glass  frame,  and 
has  one  dollar,  two  dollar,  five  dollar  and  ten  dollar 
bills  folded  up  under  the  glass.  There  is  a  large  re- 
volving bowl,  turned  by  the  dealer;  and  wherever 
the  ball  lands,  if  on  a  one,  two,  five  or  ten,  it  pays 
correspondingly.  This  game  is  also  controlled  by 
the  "squeeze"  or  an  electric  brake,  and  can  be  manip- 
ulated against  the  player 

If  operated  fairly  the  chances  against  the  player 
are  seven  to  one. 


294    •  Easy  Money. 

MATCHING  OR  FLIPPING  COINS. 

If  you  are  ever  invited  to  match  or  flip  coins  with 
two  persons,  whose  integrity  you  do  not  know  to  be 
perfect,  you  may  prepare  to  lose  your  money.  The 
proposition  in  matching  coins  is  that  the  man  hold- 
ing the  coin  with  the  odd  face  up  wins. 

If  two  players  are  confederates  they  will  have 
signals,  which  will  be  used  so  that  one  of  them  will 
put  one  face  of  a  coin  up  and  the  other  the  opposite 
face.  When  the  third  player  proceeds  to  match  or 
flip  it  makes  no  difference  which  face  of  his  coin 
turns  up,  one  of  the  confederates  must  necessarily 
be  the  holder  of  the  coin  with  the  odd  face,  and  the 
winner. 

Where  the  game  is  carried  on  by  confederates 
they  will  permit  the  victim  to  win  occasionally,  by 
way  of  encouragement. 

Coins  are  often  loaded  so  as  to  make  them  turn 
up,  when  thrown,  a  certain  way.  A  trickster  carries 
two  coins  ;  one  loaded  so  that  heads  will  turn  up,  the 
other  so  that  tails  will  appear.    Look  out  for  him. 

A  coin  can  so  be  held  in  the  hand  by  an  expert, 
with  the  hand  placed  on  the  table,  the  coin  held  be- 
tween his  fingers,  so  that  after  one  calls  heads  or 
tails  the  player  can  turn  the  coin  either  way  without 
detection. 

The  seemingly  innocent  pastime  of  matching  or 
flipping  coins  may  be  a  trick  played  by  experts  to 
rob  people  of  their  money. 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.     295 

SHELL  GAME. 

One  of  the  oldest  games  used  by  grafters  to  fleece 
the  people  is  the  shell  game,  sometimes  called  the 
potato  game. 

Three  empty  halves  of  English  walnuts  are 
usually  the  device  with  which  the  manipulation  is 
done,  in  connection  with  a  pea,  or  some  round  thing 
about  that  size. 

Like  the  three-card  monte,  eight-dice,  and  other 
similar  games,  the  operator  of  the  shell  game  has 
boosters  and  cappers  who  encourage  people  to  make 
bets  on  the  manipulation  of  the  shells  and  pea. 

The  operator  will  let  you  see  one  of  the  shells 
placed  over  the  pea  and  allow  you  to  put  your  hand 
on  top  of  the  shell,  under  which  the  ball  is  placed — 
as  you  think.  He  will  allow  you  to  keep  your  hand 
on  the  shell  while  you  get  out  your  money,  and  you 
would  wager  your  life  that  the  little  pea  is  under  the 
shell  which  you  hold.  You  saw  it  there  and  you  put 
your  hand  on  the  shell.    No  one  has  moved  it. 

You  lift  the  shell,  but  the  pea  is  not  there.  The 
operator  calmly  lifts  another  shell  and  shows  you 
the  pea. 

You  wonder  how  this  happened.  There  is  no  hole 
in  the  table  and  none  in  the  shell.  When  the  oper- 
ator was  in  the  act  of  placing  the  shell  over  the  ball, 
as  you  thought,  he  deftlv  used  the  little  finger  of  his 
right  hand,  at  the  same  time  talking  to  you  and 
looking  you  straight  in  the  eye,  and  shot  the  pea  un- 
der another  shell.  This  is  done  so  quickly  as  to  be 
beyond  detection. 


296  Easy  Money. 

Remember  that  the  fingers  are  quicker  than  the 
eye.  You  may  bet  that  this  is  not  so,  but  it  is.  The 
expert  shell  worker  can  manipulate  his  fingers  more 
quickly  than  the  eye  can  detect. 

This  is  another  game  that  you  cannot  possibly 
beat. 

SLOT  MACHINES. 

Of  the  various  kinds  of  slot  machines  that  are 
used  to  take  money  from  the  public  is  the  one  that 
contains  coins  and  is  played  for  money. 

Until  recently  these  machines  were  played  in  ev- 
ery state.  At  this  time  they  are  prohibited  in  many 
states,  and  in  many  cities  where  the  state  law  does 
not  suppress  them. 

These  machines  afiford  considerable  amusement 
and  entertainment  to  the  players.  The  winnings 
are  just  sufficient  to  encourage  one  to  keep  on  at  the 
game. 

These  slot  machines  are  about  four  to  four  and  a 
half  feet  tall,  contain  a  dial  and  coin  slots.  They  are 
made  with  pockets  and  contain  nickels,  dimes,  quar- 
ters, half-dollars  and  dollars. 

These  machines  can  be  geared  to  stop  regularly 
on  certain  numbers,  and  are  so  set  that  the  chances 
against  the  player  are  eight  to  cne. 

If  one  continues  to  play  a  slot  machine  he  will 
lose.  It  is  impossible  to  win  in  the  end.  You  may 
play  the  machine  once  or  twice  and  make  a  winning; 
but  you  may  then  play  for  an  hour  without  repeat- 
ing the  performance. 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.     297 


Money  Slot  Machines. 


298 


Easy  Money. 


Money  Slot  Machine. 

There  are  many  so-called  merchandise  machines 
which  have  a  gambling  feature  attached  to  them. 
All  such  machines  are  geared  and  regulated  on  a 
large  percentage  against  the  player. 


Merchandise  Slot  Machines. 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.     299 

You  can  safely  count  that  every  slot  machine  with 
a  gambling  feature  is  geared  and  set  to  beat  you. 

KENO. 

An  old  and  popular  game  is  keno.  In  this  game 
there  is  a  wheel  that  revolves,  which  contains  num- 
bers ;  and  when  it  stops,  one  of  the  numbers  is  op- 
posite an  indicator.  This  number  is  called  by  the 
operator.  Or,  in  place  of  a  wheel,  a  receptacle  con- 
taining numbered  balls,  called  a  "goose-neck",  is 
used.  In  the  latter  case  the  receptacle  is  shaken,  a 
ball  rolled  out  and  the  number  on  it  called. 


Keno  Card. 


Keno  Ball. 


Keno  Goose  Neck. 


300  Easy  Money. 

The  players  have  a  card  containing  a  combination 
of  numbers,  usually  three  in  a  row  ;  and  as  the  num- 
ber on  the  wheel  or  ball  is  called  the  player  marks 
the  number,  if  it  is  on  his  card.  The  winner  is  the 
one  who  first  marks  all  the  numbers  in  one  row  on 
his  card.    He  then  calls  "keno",  and  takes  the  pot. 

This  game  is  easily  controllable  by  the  keeper, 
and  may  be,  and  usually  is,  run  dishonestly. 

The  game  has  been  practically  put  out  of  business 
in  the  United  States,  but  is  played  in  Mexico,  par- 
ticularly at  Juarez,  opposite  El  Paso. 

COCK  FIGHTING. 

In  these  days  cock  fighting  is  practically  sup- 
pressed, except  in  Mexico. 

If,  however,  you  are  ever  present  at  such  a  bloody 
entertainment,  you  may  be  sure  that  cocks  can  be 
so  equipped  as  to  make  one  easily  the  victim  of  the 
other.  This  is  done  by  the  adjustment  of  spurs  or 
knives,  so  that  one  bird  is  absolutely  at  the  mercy 
of  the  other. 

Where  cock  fights  are  arranged  to  invite  the  pub- 
lic to  bet,  the  birds  are  fixed. 

TURKEY  PRIZES. 

As  the  holidays  approach  the  shooting  galleries 
and  raffling  concerns  offer  turkeys  as  prizes.  Did 
you  ever  hear  of  anyone  winning  such  a  turkey 
whom  you  knew  was  not  a  capper  for  the  keeper  of 
the  place? 

Whatever  your  score  may  be  at  the  shooting  gal- 
lery, or  whatever  your  number  in  the  raffle,  you  will 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.     301 

lose.  When  the  time  to  distribute  the  turkeys 
comes,  some  one  representing  the  proprietor  will 
have  a  score  higher  than  yours  and  the  winning 
number  in  the  raffle. 

THE  CIRCUS  GRAFT. 

The  majority  of  circuses  traveling  throughout  the 
United  States  have  a  lot  of  grafters  and  gamblers 
following  them  who  pay  a  privilege  to  the  managers 


Three  Arrow  Spindle. 


Camel  Back  Squeeze  Spindle, 


The  Fish  in  Fish  Pond  Game. 


302  Easy  Money. 

or  proprietors  of  the  show  to  work  the  green  ones 
who  come  to  town  to  see  the  circus.  They  work  all 
sorts  of  games,  such  as  shell  games,  eight-dice  cloth, 
drop  case,  the  count  down,  the  spindle,  etc. 

These  grafters  could  not  exist  if  the  circus  pro- 
prietors were  not  in  with  the  game.  Beware  of  all 
games  at  such  a  place.  They  are  mere  means  of  rob- 
bing you. 

THE  BIRD  CAGE  GAME. 

The  bird-cage  game  is  usually  played  at  county 
fairs.  There  are  three  dice  in  the  cage,  and  the 
player  bets  on  the  numbers  from  1  to  6,  same  as 
chuck-a-luck.  The  cage  and  dice  are  controlled  by 
electric  currents.  It  is  swung  so  as  to  be  moved  to 
turn  the  dice. 

POLICY  GAME. 

One  of  the  lowest  types  of  gambling  known  is  the 
policy  game.  It  is  run  to  impose  on  the  ignorant  and 
illiterate.  It  is  the  popular  chance  game  with 
negroes. 

Policy  is  a  game  of  drawing,  and  is  much  like  lot- 
tery. The  winner  is  required  to  have  a 'combination 
of  two  numbers,  which  are  on  the  sheets  on  the  same 
line.  For  example :  52,  55.  In  order  to  win  one 
must  have  these  two  numbers  in  combination. 

The  prizes  for  which  the  drawings  are  had  are 
thirty  per  cent,  of  the  receipts.  A  pretty  sure  busi- 
ness for  the  proprietor. 

Both  state  and  municipal  laws  have  been  enacted 
to  prohibit  and  suppress  this  nefarious  game. 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.     303 


Bird  Cage  Controlled  by  Electricity. 


In  order  to  avoid  the  law  and  give  the  semblance 
of  legality  to  the  announcement  of  the  winnings,  the 
card  publishing  the  results  of  the  drawings  uses  the 
name  of  some  prominent  stock  in  connection  with 
the  numbers,  as  shown  in  the  illustration. 


304 


Easy  ]VIoney. 


MON       JUL-V       12      OS. 

liiteodiiooal  5lo(li  (o.'s  Oootations 

TO-DA-YS-    TPtA-rrSA-CTION-a; 

LAST      QUOTATIONS 
SbI*-*.  Psrcantao* 

l^i  Am.  Steel 57 

68  Am.  Leather 19 

51  Am,  Rubber  36 
60  Con.  H.  I.  of  Utah  26 

,„8  Con.  Was 31 

33  Erie  Corn 67 

41  Fulton  Loco.  10 

71  General 27 

38  filter.  Air  Brahe,,  46 

52  Kansas  Tool  Co.  .  72 
47  Louis  Paper  Co.  37 
23  Manhattan  Tin  78 
56  Pressed  Air  Co.  74 

South.  Ry. 

424  Twin.  C.R.T 454 


■BEWARE  OF   CaUMTERFEITS- 


A  Deceptive  Policy  Drawing  Announcement 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.     305 

All  the  large  cities  of  the  United  States  are  in- 
fested with  policy  games.  AI  Adams,  many  times  a 
millionaire,  was  for  years  the  policy  king  of  this 
country.  After  serving  a  term  in  Sing  Sing  for  con- 
ducting policy,  he  committed  suicide. 


PM 

PM 

IS 

57 

68 

19 

51 

36 

60  26 

8 

31 

33 

67 

41 

10 

71 

27 

36 

46 

52   72 

47 

37 

23 

78 

be  74 

KU 

AM 

52 

55 

9] 

63 

^0 

34 

66 

59 

11 

20 

44 

5 

cJ 

15 

71 

68  • 

5o 

8 

■:^>5 

71 

32 

25 

77 

3 

Morning  Announcement  oi 
Policy  Drawings. 


Afternoon  Announcement  of 
Policy  Drawings. 


(20) 


306 


Easy  Money. 


4^  Jt-fSr^ 

// 


^ 


Policy  Sheet  Upon  Which  Bets  and  Numbers  are  Registered. 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.     307 

AUTOMOBILE   GAMBLING. 

One  of  the  latest  and  up-to-date  ways  of  takings 
money  from  the  thoughtless  and  unwary  is  betting 
on  the  numbers  of  automobile  licenses  that  are  at- 
tached to  machines. 

One  who  is  in  the  business  of  grafting  and  rob- 
bing people  in  a  seemingly  fair  way  will  manage  to 


Automobile  Gambling. 

become  acquainted  with  moneyed  men  who  own  au- 
tomobiles. The  trickster  will  manage  to  take  a  ride 
with  his  intended  victim,  first  knowing  that  the  lat- 
ter has  an  inclination  to  gamble. 


308  Easy  Money. 

As  they  ride  along  the  faker  will  offer  to  bet  his 
new  friend  that  the  number  on  the  machine  ahead, 
which  is  so  far  distant  that  it  cannot  be  read,  is  an 
even  one.  This  looks  like  an  even  chance  for  a 
break,  and  if  the  automobile  owner  is  at  all  inclined 
to  take  a  chance  he  will  quickly  bite  on  the  propo- 
sition. 

But  the  trickster  has  a  confederate  who  is  riding 
in  the  machine  to  which  is  attached  the  number 
which  is  the  subject  of  the  wager,  and  knows  what 
the  number  is.  Or  the  trickster  will  propose  to  the 
automobile  owner  with  whom  he  is  riding  to  bet  that 
the  number  on  the  next  machine  that  passes  will  be 
an  even  or  an  odd  number,  whichever  he  may  select. 
This  wager  is  quickly  accepted,  when,  on  a  signal 
from  the  faker,  his  confederate,  who  is  following  be- 
hind in  another  machine,  quickly  passes,  the  faker 
winning  the  bet,  as  he  knew  what  the  number 
will  be. 

PAKE  LOTTERIES. 

There  are  fake  lottery  games  carried  on  at  many 
cigar  stands,  candy  stores,  barber  shops  and  saloons, 
where  the  prizes  are  safety  razors,  fountain  pens, 
and  similar  articles. 

Numbers  are  drawn  or  given  out  in  various  ways. 
When  the  drawings  take  place  some  representative 
of  the  proprietor  of  the  game  wins  the  prize. 

These  lottery  games  are  conducted  for  the  pur- 
pose of  getting  money  from  the  public,  and  never 
with  the  intention  of  giving  any  consideration  for  it. 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.      309 


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310 


Easy  Money. 


In  many  saloons  tickets  bearing  numbers  are 
given  out  with  each  purchase.  The  ones  receiving 
such  tickets  are  permitted  to  place  them  in  a  box, 


Numbers  on 

back 

of   every  square 

making 

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One  glance  will  convince  you  of  the  money  making  merits  o(  this  Substit'ita  Fpf 
Slot  Machines. 

The  above  cut  illustrates  the  Game,  which  contains  196  Blocks 

at  &c.  each $9.80 

Amount  of  Prizaa 6  30 

Cash  profit 8.60 

Profi  t .  on  goods  Riven  away 2.60 

Total  profit  to  dealer ~^    6.00 

A  New  Fake  Lottery. 


Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception      311 

there  to  await  the  announced  drawing  for  prizes. 
The  drawing  takes  place,  but  some  confederate  of 
the  proprietor  is  the  winner.  All  such  schemes  are 
fraudulent  and  a  species  of  robbery. 

In  the  windows  of  many  mercantile  establish- 
ments can  be  seen  automobiles  with  the  announce- 
ments that  tickets  are  given  with  each  purchase,  and 
that  on  a  certain  day  the  machine  will  be  the  prize 
of  a  drawing. 

It  is  rarely  ever  the  case  that  such  a  drawing  is 
honest  and  in  good  faith.  I  know  of  one  automobile 
being  used  in  one  prominent  business  house  for  five 
drawings. 

The  proprietors  of  business  firms  conducting  such 
schemes  are  usually  so  prominent  as  to  be  above  the 
suspicion  of  the  police  officers ;  but  all  such  adver- 
tised schemes  should  be  watched,  and  some  officer 
should  be  present  at  the  drawing  to  see  that  it  is 
fairly  and  honestly  made. 

MISCELLANEOUS  FAKE  SCHEMES. 
There  are  many  schemes  practiced  to  fleece  the 
public ;  high  five,  stusch,  the  Jewish  game,  seven 
and  one-half  and  fan-tan.  Lottery  games  are  con- 
ducted in  connection  with  the  business  of  many  re- 
tail houses.  Like  the  automobile  prize,  there  are 
prizes  offered  to  induce  purchasers  to  patronize  the 
establishment,  numbers  being  given  out  and  a  draw- 
ing had  for  the  prize.  Almost  without  exception  all 
such  schemes  are  for  graft  only,  and  no  prize  is  ever 
drawn  except  by  a  representative  of  the  proprietor. 


312 


Easy  Money. 


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Games  and  Schemes  of  Deception.     313 

In  every  pool-room  and  billiard  hall  there  are 
sharpers  who  play  the  games  dishonestly,  when  they 
can  secure  a  victim  who  is  willing  to  bet  his  money. 

It  is  evidence  of  great  lack  of  morals  or  common 
sense  for  one  to  be  drawn  into  a  betting  game  with- 
out knowing  the  game  and  those  who  participate  in 
it  with  him. 

PAWNSHOP  GRAFT. 

Among  the  tricks  of  the  pawnshop-keeper  is  the 
one  of  using  tickets  on  articles  which  are  practically 
worthless  and  have  an  agent  go  out  and  sell  such 
tickets  on  a  plea  of  poverty  and  necessity,  putting  up 
the  heart-rending  and  plausible  story  that  he  has 
been  compelled  to  pawn  a  watch,  or  ring,  as  the  case 
may  be,  and  he  will  lose  it  unless  it  is  redeemed  at 
once. 

The  victim  is  moved  to  listen  and  to  accede  to  the 
request  of  the  agent,  first,  because  of  sympathy,  sec- 
ond, because  he  thinks  he  will  be  getting  a  valuable 
article  for  much  less  than  its  worth.  The  ticket  is 
purchased,  and  the  purchaser  proceeds  to  redeem 
the  article,  when  he  discovers  it  is  worthless.  His 
investment  has  been  lost. 

This  is  one  of  the  ways  in  which  pawnbrokers  get 
rid  of  their  worthless  stock. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 

SOME  GAMBLING  STORIES. 

At  a  mining  camp  in  Nevada  years  ago,  a  party  of 
five  high  rollers  were  accustomed  to  meet  every  Sat- 
urday night,  and  sometimes  on  Sabbath  afternoons, 
to  indulge  in  playing  the  great  American  game. 
Two  were  lawyers,  one  was  a  physician,  one  a  min- 
ing superintendent,  and  one  a  merchant.  The  game 
was  not  a  large  one  for  those  days,  where  twenty- 
dollar  pieces  were  almost  as  plentiful  as  dollars  are 
now,  yet  considerable  money  changed  hands.  The 
meeting  room  was  in  the  front  office  of  a  one-story 
wooden,  cloth  and  paper-lined  building,  used  as  one 
of  the  law  offices  of  one  of  the  party.  There  was  no 
"kitty",  and  the  game  was  perfectly  fair. 

After  the  game  had  progressed  for  several  weeks 
a  Hebrew  clothing  merchant  by  the  name  of  Gold- 
stein managed  to  worm  himself  in  as  one  of  the 
party.  His  "luck"  was  so  phenomenal  that  it  ex- 
cited the  suspicions  of  the  host,  who  watched  him 
carefully,  and  finally  detected  him  in  cheating. 

The  lawyer  was  a  Vermont  yankee,  and  a  clever 
amateur  mechanic.  He  took  a  friend  into  his  confi- 
dence, and  together  they  constructed  a  poker  tele- 
graph. A  hole  was  bored  in  the  floor  and  a  peg  in- 
serted. From  the  bottom  of  this  peg  a  fine  copper 
wire  passed  over  rollers  beyond  the  partition,  where 

314 


Some  Gambling  Stories.  315 

it  was  carried  through  and  over  the  ceiling  to  a  point 
directly  above  the  poker  table.  On  some  boards 
placed  across  the  ceiling  joists,  a  narrow^  mattress 
was  stretched,  and  reposing  on  this  mattress,  the 
watcher,  through  a  hole  in  the  ceiling,  could  see  the 
hands  of  the  players  ;  for  it  was  before  the  days  of 
"squeezers"  and  the  cards  were  more  exposed. 

The  host,  having  donned  a  pair  of  thin  canvas 
slippers,  seated  himself  where  he  "could  place  a  foot 
over  the  peg.  When  the  cards  were  dealt  the  gen- 
tleman aloft  would  examine  Goldstein's  hand,  and 
by  means  of  the  copper  wire  telegraph  the  result  of 
his  observations. 

One  tap  of  the  peg  meant,  "can't  see  Goldstein's 
hand" ;  two  taps,  "he  has  one  pair" ;  three  taps,  "he 
has  two  pairs" ;  four  taps,  "he  has  three  of  a  kind" ; 
five  taps  was  signalled  for  a  straight,  six  taps  for  a 
flush,  seven  taps  for  a  full,  and  eight  taps  for  four  of 
a  kind. 

The  plan  worked  admirably.  No  hand  except  that 
of  Goldstein  was  signalled,  and  no  attempt  was  made 
to  take  advantage  of  any  other  player.  The  lawyer 
kept  a  strict  account  of  the  winnings  and  losings  of 
the  other  players ;  for  his  purpose,  which  he  subse- 
quently carried  out,  was  to  restore  to  each  one  the 
amount  won  or  rather  stolen  from  him  by  Goldstein. 

In  two  sittings  the  Hebrew  was  divested  of  all 
that  he.  had  previously  won,  and  something  more. 
He  chafed  at  the  play.  If  he  had  a  good  hand  his  op- 
ponent would  not  come  in.    If  he  attempted  to  blufif, 


316  Easy  ^Money. 

he  was  called.  Finally  the  operator  above  tele- 
graphed that  Goldstein  had  three  aces,  but  the  law- 
yer happened  to  have  a  hand  full  of  kings,  and  there 
were  raises  and  re-raises  until  the  draw  came.  The 
lawyer  stood  pat ;  Goldstein  drew  two  cards.  In  the 
draw  Goldstein  captured  the  other  ace.  The  man 
above  pulled  the  wire  eight  times,  and,  in  his  zeal 
and  excitement,  leaned  too  far  off  the  mattress  on 
which  he  had  been  lying.  He  fell  on  the  cloth  ceil- 
ing, tore  it  from  its  fastenings,  and  wrapped  in  it, 
came  down  upon  the  poker  table  with  a  dull,  sicken- 
ing thud,  scattering  cards  and  chips,  upsetting  the 
kerosene  lamp,  and  leaving  the  room  in  darkness, 
under  cover  of  which  the  lookout  hurried  into  the 
back  room. 

The  players,  with  yells  of  dismay,  rushed  for  the 
front  door.  ''An  earthquake,"  said  one.  "A  cy- 
clone," said  another.  "Is  the  town  destroyed?"  said 
a  third.  But  on  the  street  all  seemed  quiet.  The 
lights  in  the  saloons  w^ere  as  brilliant  as  ever,  and 
from  a  neighboring  dance  hall  the  sweet  strains  of 
music  were  heard. 

"Whatever  it  was,"  said  one,  "it  seems  to  have 
been  confined  to  this  building." 

"It  was  probably."  said  the  lawyer,  "a  dispensa- 
tion of  providence  to  punish  Mr.  Goldstein  for  gam- 
bling on  the  Jewish  Sabbath." 

"It  was  a  hell  of  a  time  for  providence  to  inter- 
fere", said  Goldstein,  "when  I  had  four  aces.  Any- 
how, I  am  entitled  to  dot  pot." 


Some  Gambling  Stories.  317 


'O 


"What  did  you  do  with  your  four  aces,  Mr.  Gold- 
stein?" said  the  lawyer  softly. 

"They  vas  knocked  out  of  my  hand,"  said  Gold- 
stein, "but  I  suppose  you  vill  take  a  gentleman's 
word  for  it  under  the  circumstances." 

"Certainly,  Mr.  Goldstein,"  said  the  lawyer.  "I 
would  no  more  think  of  doubting  your  word  than 
you  would  of  doubting  mine.  But  I,  you  see,  had  a 
ten  high  sequence  flush,  which  beat  your  four  aces, 
so  the  pot  belonged  to  me.  I  noticed  that  you  had 
up  all  the  chips  that  were  in  front  of  you,  and  you 
made  a  mouth  bet  of  a  hundred  dollars  besides,  as 
you  will  remember;  so  all  the  chips  on  the  floor  are 
mine,  and  you  owe  me  a  hundred  dollars  besides." 

"Oh,  I  pays  no  hundret  dollars  pesides,"  said 
Goldstein,  "ant  I  blays  no  more  poker  in  a  place 
where  the  ceiling  tumbles  down." 

"Just  as  you  like,  Mr.  Goldstein.  We  will  dis- 
pense with  your  company  hereafter.  Gentlemen, 
shall  we  return  to  the  office  and  reckon  up  how  we 
stand?     Good-night,  Mr.  Goldstein." 

And  when  they  returned  to  the  office  and  gath- 
ered up  the  wreck,  the  lawyer  explained  the  cause 
of  the  catastrophe,  and  after  every  player  had  been 
made  good  the  amount  that  Goldstein  had  won  from 
him,  there  was  a  small  balance  left  for  repairs,  and 
the  next  Saturday  the  friendly  poker  game  was  re- 
sumed sans  Goldstein,  and  with  a  motto  on  the  wall 
which  read,  "Fiat  Justitia  ruat  Ceiling." 


318  Easy  Money. 

In  my  career  of  tips  and  downs,  I  once  tried  to 
beat  a  poker  game  in  Cincinnati.  I  landed  in  that 
city  one  fall  with  about  twenty  thousand  dollars, 
and  was  introduced  into  a  poker  game  where  all  the 
big  gamblers  of  Cincinnati  played,  and  if  ever  a 
victim  took  the  bait,  hook,  line  and  sinker,  and  even 
the  cork  included,  I  did,  and  I  suppose,  if  my  bank 
roll  had  lasted,  I  would  have  even  swallowed  the 
pole. 

My  dear  old  friend,  Mose  Goldblatt,  was  playing 
in  the  same  game,  and  the  only  consolation  I  had 
was  that  Goldblatt  and  I  were  the  "carriage  boys." 
They  would  not  think  of  sitting  in  the  game  until 
they  had  sent  a  carriage  for  us. 

It  took  me  a  week  to  tumble  to  the  artistic  card 
work  and  to  see  that  I  had  been  robbed.  I  left 
Cincinnati  in  about  three  weeks'  time — broke. 

Some  years  back,  when  John  W.  Gates  was  mak- 
ing Chicago  his  headquarters,  he  was  invited  to 
participate  in  a  private  poker  party  at  the  Welling- 
ton Hotel  one  evening,  and  he  invited  his  friend, 
Ed.  Wolfif  of  St.  Louis,  who  at  that  time  was  a 
rich  young  man  with  a  promising  business  career 
before  him,  to  participate  in  the  game  to  which  Mr. 
Gates  had  been  invited. 

Both  gentlemen  were  on  hand  promptly  at  the 
hour  arranged,  and  in  a  little  while  after  the  game 
had  been  in  operation,  both  were  heavy  losers. 
They  played  along  until  Mr.  Wolff  had  lost  all  the 
money  he  had  with  him,  amounting  to  about  two 


Some  Gambling  Stories.  319 

thousand  dollars,  when  he  commenced  to  give 
checks.  Mr.  Gates  in  the  meantime  was  losing 
corresponding^ly,  and  after  Mr.  Wolff  had  lost  some 
five  thousand  dollars,  and  Mr.  Gates  was  ten  thou- 
sand dollars  loser,  Mr.  Wolff  quit  the  game,  and, 
excusing  himself,  left  the  room,  sending  a  bell  boy 
for  Mr.  Gates.  Upon  the  arrival  of  Mr.  Gates,  he 
asked  him  if  he  knew  his  friends.  Mr.  Gates  said, 
"Yes,  I  guess  they  are  all  right."  Mr.  Wolff  said, 
"Well.  Mr.  Gates,  I  think  we  have  been  cheated." 
Mr.  Gates,  answering,  said :  "I  believe  we  have 
been,  too,  but  I  am  going  to  lose  a  little  more  to 
find  out  how  those  fellows  do  it." 

A  few  years  afterward  poor  Ed.  Wolff  failed  in 
business,  lost  his  wealth  and  died  a  tragic  and  deso- 
late death. 

Gov.  Tabor  of  Colorado  was  known  as  an  expert 
poker  player.  That  one  may  be  so  equipped  men- 
tally to  successfully  play  poker  against  one  holding 
better  hands,  but  not  equally  shrewd,  is  illustrated 
by  a  poker  game  played  by  the  Governor  and  a 
prominent  Jew  merchant  of  Denver. 

The  Governor  and  his  Hebrew  friend  had  left 
Denver  on  the  early  evening  train  for  New  York, 
both  traveling  in  the  same  Pullman.  After  dinner 
the  merchant,  who  was  an  ardent  poker  player,  sug- 
gested to  the  Governor  a  game  to  pass  away  the 
time,  the  latter  readily  agreeing. 

The  Governor  had  won  all  the  cash  the  merchant 
had  with  him,  and  the  latter  had  staked  his  diamond 


320  ----  Easy  Money.-   - 

ring  and  scarf  pin  against  an  amount  of  the  Gov- 
ernor's cash.  The  hands  had  been  dealt.  The  mer- 
chant held  four  kings.  So  enthused  was  he  because 
of  his  strong  hand  that  he  proposed  to  the  Governor 
to  give  his  check  for  two  thousand  dollars  and  raise 
the  pot.  The  Governor,  hesitatingly,  said :  "Well, 
Jake,  I  will  do  so  if  you  will  let  me  draw  a  queen." 

The  Hebrew  was  delighted,  not  only  willingly 
agreeing  to  the  Governor  drawing  a  queen,  but  also 
increasing  the  size  of  the  check  to  three  thousand 
dollars. 

The  merchant  threw  down  his  hand  showing 
that  he  held  four  kings  and  one  queen.  The  Gov- 
ernor laid  down  his  hand,  showing  four  aces  and 
one  queen. 

The  merchant's  heart  was  broken;  he  nearly 
fainted  away,  but  gamely  arose  and  went  to  an- 
other part  of  the  car. 

Gov.  Tabor  remained  in  the  stateroom,  where 
the  game  had  been  in  progress,  calmly  smoking. 
An  hour  passed  aWay,  when  the  Jew  entered,  say- 
ing: "Governor,  I  like  to  ask  you  vone  question; 
vat  the  hell  did  you  want  mit  that  queen?" 


CHAPTER  XXX. 

GAMBLING. 

Reader,  1  am  not  a  preacher,  licensed  or  other- 
wise. I  do  not  ask  you  to  consider  the  wrong  done 
to  the  other  man  in  taking  his  money  without  con- 
sideration, for  it  is  a  VvTong  that  you  won't  get  a 
chance  to  perpetrate  very  often.  I  do  ask  you 
to  consider  the  wrong  you  will  do  to  yourself,  in 
'giving  up  your  hard-earned  money  to  the  other  man 
without  consideration,  for  that  is  what  will  happen 
to  you  most  of  the  time. 

Do  you  incline  to  the  noble  sport  of  horse  racing? 
Go  out  upon  a  range  where  there  is  a  band  of  wild 
horses,  one  of  which  is  a  beauty,  whose  magnificent 
proportions  have  excited  the  cupidity  of  half  a 
dozen  vaqueros,  who,  on  their  best  mounts,  with 
lariats  coiled  on  saddle  bows,  start  to  capture  him. 
There  you  will  see  a  race  where  the  prize  will  fall, 
if  it  fall  at  all,  to  the  muscle,  courage  and  pedigree 
of  the  best  animal,  and  the  skill  of  the  rider. 

But  at  the  ordinary  or  extraordinary  race  track, 
from  Long  Island  to  New  Orleans,  from  Vancouver 
to  El  Paso,  you  will  venture  into  a  maelstrom  of 
bribed  blacksmiths  who  will  undershoe  or  overshoe 
or  misshoe  the  horse  tha't  could  win ;  bribed  helpers 
who  will  dope  him  ;  bribed  starters  who  will  arrange 
to  leave  him  at  the  post;  a  bribed  jockey  who  will 

(21)  321 


322  Easy  Money. 

ride  him  or  pull  him  so  as  to  let  the  other  horse 
win;  and  a  bribed  judge,  who,  if  an  accidental  un- 
bribed  jockey  is  riding  his  horse  a  nose  ahead  of 
the  "fixed"  horse,  will  count  noses  the  wrong  way. 
Can  you  win  under  such  circumstances?  Could  a 
cat  with  his  claws  clipped  catch  a  rat,  when  a  fully 
equipped  yowler  was  after  the  same  rodent? 

Has  faro  a  fascination  for  you?  Does  "the  call 
of  the  wild"  ass  in  your  blood  incline  you  to  buy  a 
stack  of  ivories  and  tackle  the  smooth  and  urbane 
gentleman  who  is  priest  at  the  shrine  of  the  Egypt- 
ian King? 

You  will  encounter,  although  you  know  it  not 
and  your  eyes  see  it  not,  a  "snake"  in  the  silver  box, 
a  pack  of  dressed  cards,  eight  sensitive  fingers  and 
two  trained  thumbs,  with  more  card  brains  in  each 
digit  than  you  ever  had,  and,  in  the  end,  every  one 
of  your  ivory  representatives  of  value  will  be  a 
pilgrim  to  the  check-rack,  singing  the  hymn,  "Fare- 
well, Young  Fool,  I'm  Going  Home." 

Does  the  roulette  wheel  tempt  you?  Are  you  an 
expert  on  electrical  machinery?  Can  you  see  the 
foot  of  the  gambler  as  it  presses  the  button  that 
bids  the  little  ball  drop  into  the  red  when  you  bet 
on  the  black,  or  drop  into  the  even  when  your  stake 
is  on  the  odd,  or  drop  into  any  number  except  the 
one  on  which  your  money  is  placed,  or  drop  into 
the  zero  when  there  are  a  dozen  players  and  money 
is  piled  up  about  equally  on  both  colors  and  all 
numbers? 


Gambling'.  323 

There  is  but  one  fair  roulette  game  in  the  world, 
and  you  bet  a  dollar  against  ninety-eight  and  one- 
half  cents,  and  when  you  win  look  out  and  resist 
having  your  money  claimed  by  an  accomplice  of 
the  dealer. 

If  you  bet  at  Monte  Carlo  you  should  first  buy  a 
round-trip  ticket,  calling  for  meals  and  berths,  and 
non-transferable  and  non-negotiable ;  else  you  may 
be  doomed  to  pass  some  time  on  the  north  shore  of 
the  Mediterranean,  picking  olives  for  forty  cents  a 
day  and  "find"  yourself. 

Will  you  cut  out  races  and  devote  your  leisure 
time  and  surplus  money  to  short  cards?  Can  you 
turn  a  jack  from  the  bottom  of  the  pack?  Can  you 
arrange  a  code  of  signals  at  whist  with  a  fellow 
rascal ? 

No?  But  you  can  play,  or  think  you  can  play, 
the  great  American  game.  In  a  public  game  of 
poker  the  dealer  can  give  you  one  hand  and  give 
himself  another,  and  his  will  be  apt  to  be  the  larger, 
and  where  there  are  four  or  five  players,  two  of 
them  may  be  "playing  for  the  house,"  and  will 
whip-saw  you  and  crucify  you  between  a  brace  of 
thieves,  both  of  whom  are  impenitent. 

But  alas !  You  say  there  is  a  private  game  of 
poker,  a  friendly  game,  all  gentlemen,  everything 
fair  and  equal.  Well  it  may  be  fair  but  it  isn't 
equal. 

Are  you  a  master  of  mathematics,  with  a  tenac- 
ious memory,  trained  habits  of  observation  and  a 


324  Easy  :Money. 

quick  and  accurate  judge  of  rapidly  changing 
values?  Do  you  know  that  from  a  bobtail  flush  to 
four  aces  the  value  of  a  hand  is  relative  and  depends 
upon  the  number  of  players  and  the  habits  of  each 
player?  Do  you  know  that  in  about  every  private 
game  among  gentlemen,  while  there  are  three  or 
four  who  are  playing  for  sport,  there  is  one  "gentle- 
man" with  a  cast-iron  seat  to  his  breeches  who  is 
playing  for  blood  and  who  waits  for  the  best  hand, 
and  never  comes  in  under  "aces  up?" 

Can  you  beat  such  a  game  at  that?  "Go  to,"  as 
Shakespeare  would  say.  Where  Shakespeare  would 
have  you  "go  to"  I  cannot  say ;  but  I  advise  you  to 
"go  to"  your  home  and  hire  a  muscular  friend  to 
treat  you  with  a  double-geared,  triple-action  spank- 
ing machine,  until  you  shall  be  unable  to  play  any 
game  that  you  cannot  play  standing  up. 

If  you  go  the  rounds  of  slot  machines,  chuck-a- 
luck,  dice  throwing  and  other  devices,  which  illus- 
trate the  motto  that  "a  fool  and  his  money  are  soon 
parted,"  you  will  in  the  end  exclaim  the  same  as  did 
a  rube  at  a  county  fair,  where  all  gambling  had  been 
prohibited,  and  an  organ  grinder  with  his  monkey 
was  occupying  a  vacant  chuck-a-luck  table.  The 
chimpanzee  had  been  trained  to  pick  up  all  coins 
bestowed  upon  his  master,  and  drop  them  into  a 
box.  The  rube,  supposing  that  it  was  a  chuck-a- 
luck  game  such  as  had  been  played  on  that  table  the 
year  before,  deposited  one  coin  and  then  another  and 
still  another  upon  one  of  the  squares  of  the  table. 


Gambliiiff.  325 


'& 


And  as  each  was  deposited,  the  ape  swirled  his  pre- 
hensile, seized  the  coin  and  deposited  it  in  the  box. 
The  disgusted  rube,  as  he  saw  his  last  coin  disap- 
pear, exclaimed,  "This  is  the  worst  game  I  ever  saw. 
They  won't  let  you  win  a  single  bet." 

And  so  I  say  to  all  of  you  who  feel  the  gambling 
virus  stirring  in  your  veins,  "Cut  it  out,  dear  boy; 
they  won't  let  you  win  a  single  bet." 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

AN  EFFECTIVE  PROHIBITION.  ; 

Gambling  can  be  effectually  suppressed.  Penal 
statutes,  however  drastic,  have  proved  more  or  less 
ineffective,  for  one  man  can  hang  a  jury.  If  you 
want  to  eradicate  the  evil,  touch  the  pocket  nerves 
of  those  who  profit  by  it.    Enact  a  law  as  follows : 

Every  person  who  deals,  plays  or  carries  on, 
opens,  or  causes  to  be  opened,  or  who  conducts, 
either  as  owner  or  employee,  whether  for  hire  or 
not,  any  game  of  faro,  monte,  fan-tan,  poker,  seven- 
and-a-half,  twenty-one,  hokey  pokey,  or  any  bank- 
ing or  percentage  game  played  with  cards,  dice,  or 
any  device,  for  money,  checks,  credit,  or  other  rep- 
resentative of  value ;  and  every  person  who  know- 
ingly permits  any  of  said  games  to  be  played,  con- 
ducted, or  dealt  in  any  house,  or  in  or  on  any  prem- 
ises owned  or  rented  by  any  such  person,  in  whole 
or  in  part,  shall  forfeit  and  be  liable  to  any  and  ev- 
ery person  who  shall  play  at  and  lose  money  at  any 
of  said  games  a  sum  of  money  equal  to  three  times 
the  amount  so  lost  by  such  person ;  and  such  person 
losing  money  as  aforesaid  shall  be  entitled  to  re- 
cover by  civil  action  against  the  person  who  has 
dealt,  played  or  carried  on  any  of  said  games  as 
owner  or  employee,  and  against  the  owner  or  lessee, 
or  both,  of  the  house  or  premises  where  said  money 
was  lost  at  such  game,  three  times  the  amount  lost. 
An  attachment  may  issue  in  such  cases  as  in  other 
civil  actions.  In  such  action  the  person  who  dealt, 
played  or  carried  on  the  game  at  which  said  loss 
was  incurred,  and  the  owner  or  lessee,  or  both,  of 
the  premises  where  said  game  was  carried  on,  may 
be  joined  as  defendants ;  and  the  burden  or  proof  to 
show  that  such  owner  or  lessee  did  not  knowingly 
permit  such  games  to  be  played,  conducted  or  dealt, 
shaJl  be  upon  said  owner  or  lessee. 

326 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

CONCLUSION. 

I  asserted  in  the  early  part  of  this  book  that  I  had 
ceased  gambling  forever.  That  determination  is 
strengthened  and  made  firmer  by  reviewing  and 
bringing  to  memory  the  awful  scenes  I  have  wit- 
nessed and  the  acts  which  I  have  committed  and 
participated  in  for  over  twenty  years. 

For  more  than  a  year  I  have  been  doing  all  in  my 
power  to  aid  in  suppressing  gambling  in  all  forms, 
prohibiting  betting  on  horse  races,  and  to  so  expose 
the  tricks  and  schemes  of  gambling  grafters  as  to 
warn  otTiers  of  the  pitfalls  that  surround  them  in 
every  game  of  chance  or  graft. 

I  oiifered  my  services  to  the  International  Reform 
Bureau,  which  were  accepted,  and  during  the  year 
of  my  repentance  I  have  lectured  in  churches,  in 
the  halls  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
and  in  other  buildings  in  the  states  of  California, 
Oregon,  New  York,  Maryland,  District  of  Colum- 
bia, and  Ohio.  I  am  about  to  go  to  New  York  City 
and  there  aid  the  Civic  League  of  that  State  in  its 
work  and  efforts  to  suppress  gambling,  and  other 
vices,  in  all  forms. 

I  have  been  tempted  by  oflfers  of  large  sums  of 
money  to  desist  in  my  efiforts  on  moral  and  elevating 
lines.     My  life  has  been  threatened  and  numerous 

327 


328  Easy  IMoney. 

embarrassments  and  obstacles  have  been  placed  in 
my  path  ;  but  I  have  not  faltered  and  shall  not  falter. 
That  my  work  and  efforts  for  the  balance  of  my 
life  shall  in  some  degree  atone  for  the  w^rongs  and 
errors  of  the  past,  and  that  some  one  may  be  made 
the  better  through  me,  is  my  fervent  hope. 


FINIS. 


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